Like most organizations, you are already using Cloud to share files and backup data. But over the next year, 33% of retail businesses are planning to move mission-critical applications and databases to the cloud*. By collecting data from across all touchpoints with customers, and using Cloud-based data processing capabilities, retailers can become more agile to react to changing market conditions, drive deeper relationships with customers, and deliver operational efficiencies.
We recommend an IMS strategy (Identify, Match and Secure) as you mature your cloud infrastructure:
- Identify your business goals .
- Match with the right cloud infrastructure.
- Secure endpoint devices.
Identify & Match
Are you using more than one public cloud provider for storage, collaboration and inventory management? Consolidate rather than creating data silos, or make use of publicly available APIs to link services together.
Further down the collaboration path, you can deploy ‘virtual desktops’ to your users with a solution such as Lenovo Unified Workspace. This workspace aggregation solution makes it possible to deliver on any device, access to public or private web-based apps, legacy Windows apps, remote desktops, cloud storage and file shares - all in a user-friendly, cost effective, web-based workspace.
Migrating on-premises or hosted databases to the cloud? Private cloud is the right solution if you have legacy applications, or security requirements that mandate an on-premises solution. Otherwise, consider ‘hybrid cloud’ which combines private and public services. Sensitive data and complex workloads can leverage on-premise infrastructure, improving control and reducing latency, but still enabling scale and efficiency through collaboration services on the public cloud. For example, retail sales information, and the analytics derived from that data could be purely public-cloud or a blend of private and public.
Finally, if your needs are file sharing, database storage and backup, don’t over-engineer; it is likely that public cloud is the right way to go, enabling you to realize cost and efficiency benefits without investing in infrastructure. Around 50% of organizations like yours are using a public cloud solution* only.
Secure Endpoints
Three quarters of cloud data breaches are caused by malicious acts or human error,** with most of those targeting endpoint devices through malware, or because data was stored inappropriately on unsecured devices.
Protecting endpoint devices is a critical aspect of cloud security.
- Issue endpoint devices that support multi-factor authentication (e.g., biometric security factors) and enable MFA policies.
- Full-disk encryption of devices will protect them from giving up their cloud access credentials in the event of theft or loss.
- And there are ways to improve the security of users’ connections to cloud services. For example, Lenovo Vantage detects and analyzes in real-time any threats or attacks that are present near the laptop and enables the PC to distinguish between legitimate and possibly malicious networks.
* Lenovo research, 2017 ** Ponemon, 2017 Cost of Data Breach Study
