Defeating Ransomware with HPE SimpliVity Hyper-Efficient Data Protection

Ransomware is a type of malicious software/malware that is designed to block access to computer systems until a sum of money/ransom is paid. This malicious software is used by cyber criminals to pose threats and attacks on victims related to their information. They threaten to expose or publish the information of the victims is their demands are not met. The cyber criminals first encrypt files making their access impossible.

Lately, there has been an alarming increase in cases related to ransomware and an increase in the amount of ransom demanded. Some examples of such cases include an attack that was made on a California Hospital, and they paid $17,000 in Bit coins to hackers. From the Europol report, over 200,000 victims and at least 150 countries have been under ransomware attacks. The estimated amount of ransom demanded ranges from $200-$10,000 and the cost of downtime is $7,900 per minute.  70% of businesses paid the ransom, and 20% of businesses paid more than $40,000.

The reason for increased ransomware cases is because of poor data protection in personal and organizational computer systems. The data protection challenges include sub-par disaster recovery strategy, too few point in time copies to prevent data loss, inadequate strategy, inability to backup within the allocated time, and inability to back up.  According to Gartner, there are three key challenges with ransomware; antivirus software cannot be relied upon to detect and stop ransomware, a single infected client can encrypt file share, and once encrypted, there are two choices either to restore backup or pay up. What if ransomware strikes? Are you prepared enough to handle the malicious software? There are different aspects that should be put in place to handle such attacks swiftly. Backups and disaster recovery solutions, length of time to manage backup policies, and recovery time objective should be on standby to promote swift solution and recovery.

HPE SimpliVity comes with several benefits. The outcomes are that it is automated and cost-effective, there is enhanced flexibility and improved overall performance; it is a seamless data-center-in-a box implementation, and it is a simple solution with simplified management without sacrificing performance or scalability. It also maximizes and prevents data loss. HPE restores databases within minutes.

HPE SimpliVity Data Virtualization Platform

HPE SimpliVity Data Virtualization Platform enables a single shared resource pool across multiple sites and provides highly efficient data storage and mobility. It consists of the HPE OmniStack Virtual Controller and the HPE OmniStack Accelerator Card, which enables accelerated data efficiency, global unified management, and built-in data protection. It comes with a built in resiliency, backup, and disaster recovery. The following are the benefits of HPE SimpliVity:

• Hyper Efficient-it saves 90% capacity across storage and backup combined.
• Hyper Protected-takes less than a minute to complete a local backup or local restore of a 1 TB VM.
• Hyper Simple-three clicks to back up, restore, move, or clone a VM from a single console.
• Hyper Manageable- it takes less than one minute to create or update backup policies for 1000s of VMs across dozens of sites.
• Hyper Available Add or replace HPE SimpliVity systems with zero downtime for local or remote sites – Zero disruption to local or remote HPE SimpliVity backups, zero reconfiguration of HPE SimpliVity backup policies for local or remote sites, and zero re-entry of IP addresses in remote sites.

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Melillo Consulting on HPE SimpliVity

Melillo Consulting is a technology solution integrator that provides IT expertise to companies. They provide and specialize in infrastructure and data center solutions, IT business management automation, operations service management, project and portfolio management, operational intelligence, mobility, security solutions and the software defined data center. They also procure software and hardware.  Melillo Consulting added SimpliVity to their portfolio after the HPE acquisition, and expects the product will account for as much as 25 percent of our sales within a year. They partnered with HPE to provide Hunterdon Healthcare a next generation platform to host Hunterdon’s Acuo Technology PACS Archive System. They positioned HPE SimpliVity to deliver a two node SimpliVity start-up solution system.

This is a great opportunity to offer your customers a tried and true solution  against ransomware and cybercrimes. Here are some steps you can take.

1. The first step is to launch SimpliVity campaign by downloading the Best SimpliVity Kit.
2. Download the free Hyperconverged Infrastructure for Dummies e-book.
3. The next step is to build SimpliVity Opportunity pipeline.
4. Lastly, extend your hyperconvergence competency through training.