Within the past month, two organizations released reports documenting why having a cloud data protection strategy will be increasingly critical in the near future.

The “2020 Thales Data Threat Report,” with analysis by IDC Research Inc., revealed that organizations are reaching a tipping point when it comes to storing and securing data in the cloud. The study found that 50% of all corporate data is now retained in the cloud and nearly half of that is considered sensitive. All of those responding to the Thales survey said that some of the data was not encrypted and half had experienced a breach.

To further add to the data security picture, Dell Technologies Inc. recently released its “Global Data Protection Index 2020 Snapshot.” The latest report found that businesses are managing nearly 40% more data than a year ago, with the estimated cost of data loss exceeding $1 million per organization. The snapshot of over 1,000 information-technology decision makers also found that over half of organizations are struggling to find usable data protection solutions that cover edge computing infrastructure and artificial intelligence platforms.

“More than half the customers don’t have a data protection solution for their SaaS, cloud native, and multicloud environments,” said Beth Phalen (pictured), president of the Data Protection Division at Dell EMC. “More than two-thirds of the customers who may be relying on their cloud service providers for data protection say that they do not have a solution that covers all of their workloads. Whether they’re working with a cloud service provider or some other vendor, they’re being really clear that they do not have a comprehensive approach to cloud data protection.”

Phalen spoke with Dave Vellante, host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, at theCUBE’s studio in Boston, Massachusetts. Rob Emsley, director of product marketing at Dell EMC, also spoke with Vellante in a separate interview. They discussed new tools for container protection, VMware Inc.’s role in supporting Dell EMC’s initiatives, the role of purpose-built appliances, and an overall cloud data protection strategy. (* Disclosure below.)

Support for Kubernetes

A key element in covering workloads involves comprehensive data protection for container orchestration tools. In February, Dell EMC’s PowerProtect Data Manager platform added support for Kubernetes clusters as a new discoverable asset source.

This was followed by the announcement earlier this month that VMware, which is part of the Dell Technologies Inc. family, would include protection support for Kubernetes in the latest vSphere 7 release. The vSphere release included remote attestation that enhanced security through the use of a trusted host to verify the integrity of other hosts within a network.

“We’re the first large enterprise data protection vendor to lean in to providing Kubernetes data protection,” Emsley said. “That becomes vitally important especially with the developments over at our partner VMware with vSphere 7 and the introduction of Tanzu. Customers will have both vSphere virtual machines and Kubernetes containers working side by side and both of those environments need to be protected.”

Scale up or scale out

Another key element in the evolving data protection landscape involves the use of purpose-built appliances to safely secure enterprise information. EMC set the stage for its role in this market when it outbid NetApp Inc. to purchase Data Domain Inc. for $2.4 billion in 2009.

Since then, Dell EMC’s deduplication product line has emerged as the market leader in purpose-built backup arrays, according to IDC. Last year, Dell EMC rebranded Data Domain to PowerProtect as part of its announcement around new products for speed, security, and multicloud data protection.

With PowerProtect Data Manager and the X400, Dell EMC’s cloud-enabled scale-out data management appliance, customers are being offered much-needed protection options.

“It gives us the ability to offer customers choice: scale up or scale out,” Emsley said. “We’re providing customers with the existing software solutions that we’ve had in the market for a long time with an integrated form factor, as well as the brand-new software platform that will really be our innovation engine.”

It’s a safe bet that data protection vendors, such as Dell EMC, will focus more heavily on cloud platforms, with additional announcements to come. Phalen hinted at this in her interview.

“Core to our strategy is to be the essential provider of data protection for multicloud environments,” Phalen said. “If you want three words to remember for our strategy, think VMware, cloud and cyber. Cloud is central to it, and you’re going to be hearing more about it in the weeks and months ahead.”

Watch the complete video interview below and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s CUBE Conversations. (* Disclosure: Dell EMC sponsored this segment of theCUBE. Neither Dell EMC nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE