Every day, large organizations are flooded with the data generated in the course of doing business. Figuring out what to do with that data–how to leverage and benefit from it–as well as determining how to safeguard it are some of the hot topics emerging in the world of Big Data. As the stockpile of data increases, storing, securing, and making sense of it all becomes more challenging.
Big Data is already being leveraged to solve increasingly complex problems both within organizations and on behalf of their customers. The rate at which organizations produce data is only going to increase. Collecting all this data has clear benefits. The insights derived from Big Data can make organizations smarter and better able to carry out their missions in the most efficient way possible.
As such, establishing strategies for managing, storing, and securing information should be on the minds of most mainframe administrators. Traditional tools and techniques may not be sufficient for processing and interpreting large data sets. However, the tried-and-true security tool kits, including encryption and data-compression programs, are still useful.
Big Data doesn’t refer to cost. However, managing it comes at a cost. Big security also doesn’t refer to cost. However, securing your data will not be free. But it’s far cheaper than the cost of a data breach. And the opportunities that come with Big Data are far too great to pass up. Organizations are at risk of becoming overwhelmed by the amount of data that they generate each day. This is why they need to develop a strategic way of saving, archiving, and securing that data, before it becomes too unwieldy to use and too risky to maintain.
The data collected is more sensitive now than ever and there’s more of it. This means the costs of a breach or data theft are themselves exponentially higher. The threats can come from inside an organization or from the outside. Properly processing, storing, and securing data is a critical task for any mainframe manager. In the world of Big Data, that job has become more complex and difficult. Smart user management through sophisticated multi-factor authentication can help keep track of who has access to your system and simplified RACF administration will make it easier to manage who has access to what.
Mainframes have a strong reputation for their ability to handle vast quantities of data. That reputation has been earned over a number of decades, but the current trend in Big Data is challenging the ability for the hardware to keep up.
Mainframes also have a reputation for security. But now that they are receiving data from and sending it to more places than ever before, security has to be one of the first concerns when collecting data. Collecting data from multiple websites, apps, and APIs means there could be data from less trustworthy sources flowing through your systems. Actively monitoring everything that comes into and goes out of your systems isn’t practical or possible, and z/OS or whatever operating system you run on your mainframe probably does not come with all the tools needed to manage the data coming in and out of your system.
Encrypting your databases, the data flowing through them, and seeing how encryption works on your system will show you the areas of your system that are well secured.
If you’re looking for ways to better manage and secure the data on your mainframe, request a free trial of one of ASPG’s mainframe software solutions.
Photo Credit: Leonardo Rizzi via: imager.io, cc
