Page 65 - FCW, March/April 2018

IT MODERNIZATION
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GAME CHANGING TECHNOLOGY TO MEET AGENCY MISSIONS
ADOPTING CLOUD TECHNOLOGY
ON YOUR OWN TERMS
When it comes to moving to the cloud, agencies must ensure the cloud platform meets their requirements.
With the Modernizing Government Technology (MGT) Act as a catalyst, agencies are motivated to move more applications and data to cloud-based platforms. Although the funds made available through the MGT Act will ease the way, agencies know there are more hurdles to overcome in their efforts to become truly cloud-centered.
at Rubrik, a company that provides intelligent data management solutions. The solution, he says, is nding a data
Command was searching for a way to manage data across public and private cloud environments, it chose Rubrik Cloud Data Management, a software- de ned platform that uni es backup, recovery, and other data management services in a single secure fabric. That move yielded cost savings and improved service to sailors and their families who have 24/7 coverage across 500 sites without interruptions.
The rst challenge continues to be cost. While the MGT Act provides nancial resources, it requires agencies to repay the funds within three years with the savings they achieve, so any investment using MGT funds must have a near- immediate positive return on investment (ROI). The second hurdle is security, which has been a concern for agencies for years. Though cloud vendors like Amazon, Azure, and Google have robust security for their cloud offerings, it’s important to ensure that all vendors are certi ed at the highest federal security standards to minimize entry points for would-be attackers.
management orchestrator that protects data on-premises, at the edge, and in the cloud. By bridging the gap between on-premises and cloud workloads, agencies can move workloads and services to the cloud when it makes sense—not by necessity. With these capabilities, agencies also can expect higher ROI in the form of cost avoidance. By implementing solutions that provide fast recovery times, speedy backups
Security is another critical factor for the Navy. Miller recommends agencies looking for a comprehensive data management solution make security
Perhaps the most daunting challenges center around data mobility. Agencies must not only nd a way to move data to the cloud, but also nd a solution
that allows them to move at their own pace. Since it’s not possible to move everything to the cloud at once, agencies must rst transition to a hybrid-cloud model that leverages the cloud for some services and on-premises environments for others.
can avoid having to buy software and hardware, storage platforms from different vendors, and reduce operational resources.
“Agencies trying to protect both existing applications on-premises and newer workloads native to the cloud
are nding the current tools they are using aren’t prepared to handle both types of workloads,” says Rolland Miller, Director of Solution Architecture
By using a platform that provides full data mobility—on-premises, in the cloud, and in hybrid environments— agencies are now able to access the data they need for predictive analytics. Agencies can also easily spin up new applications in cloud services and attach the right data sources to those applications quickly and securely.
for applications, full cloud mobility and intuitive user interfaces, agencies
AGENCIES MUST NOT ONLY FIND A WAY TO MOVE DATA TO THE CLOUD, BUT ALSO FIND A SOLUTION THAT ALLOWS THEM TO MOVE AT THEIR OWN PACE.
a top priority by ensuring that federal security standards are met. Rubrik, for example, is certi ed for FIPS 140-2 Level 2 for both data at rest and data in motion. It also meets Common Criteria EAL2, the DoD’s Uni ed Capabilities Approved Products List (UC APL), and the Navy’s DADMS. The combination of a vendor having speci c certi cations and the ability to move and protect data on premises, at the edge, and in the cloud is the right choice for federal agencies.
For more information, please visit rubrik.com
Using this approach, Miller reports his company sees organizations save
as much as 60 percent in lifecycle cost avoidance. With numbers like those, agencies will be able to repay the money they borrowed via the MGT Act and better support their missions.
When the U.S. Navy Installations
GameChanger