The growing use of artificial intelligence, machine learning, internet of things and processing at the edge is generating a significant amount of unstructured data. This has also created a need to protect this information from cyberattack as it becomes more critical to running a business.

A combined technology solution from Dell Technologies Inc. and Superna Inc. addresses the need to monitor and protect unstructured data from a worst-case cyberattack scenario. Using Dell PowerScale and Superna’s suite of data security products, users can detect and halt a ransomware attack on critical data within Dell EMC Isilon storage arrays.

“The number one recommendation these days is to have an offline copy of your data,” said Andrew MacKay (pictured, left), president and chief technology officer of Superna. “That requires a cyber vault solution where you are now going to take a copy for your data, place it in an offline storage device, and you’re going to manage that through some sort of automation. We’ve married those two requirements into a single product; we can both protect at the source and maintain and monitor the offline copy of the data at the same time. That’s the secret sauce of our solution.”

MacKay spoke with Lisa Martin, host of SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming video studio theCUBE. He was joined by Parasar Kodati (pictured, right), senior consultant of ISG product marketing at Dell Technologies, and they discussed how Superna leveraged Dell’s technology for its solution and a growing need to protect object storage. (* Disclosure below.)

Analyzing detection patterns

By targeting the Isilon PowerScale platform, Superna’s approach is to provide a tightly integrated solution that focuses on protection of data in both file and object storage. This means analyzing detection patterns and reacting in real-time to IO that’s being processed by a storage device.

“More and more unstructured data is becoming a source of competitive differentiation for customers,” Kodati said. “A lot of this data is being stored on highly scalable NAS platforms like Dell EMC PowerScale. Superna’s products form a core cyber resiliency network when it comes to unstructured data on PowerScale platforms.”

Superna’s work with Dell is designed to offer unstructured data protection at a time when threat actors persistently search for the weakest link in IT infrastructure.

“The new frontier is object storage because these types of systems are compliance data; it’s frequently used to store backup data. And that is a prime target for attackers,” MacKay noted. “The security tools and maturity of the technology to protect object data is nowhere near what’s in place for file data. We’ve announced and released the ability to protect object data in real time the same way we’ve done it for years for file data because we understand that that’s just the next target.”

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

Photo: SiliconANGLE