There were several announcements from Dell Technologies Inc. in November designed to strengthen security for enterprises concerned about protecting critical data in a multicloud environment.

The announcements involved a new PowerProtect appliance, enhancements for Dell’s APEX storage services, and an agreement to use Google Cloud for cyber recovery. Surrounding the news was a clear message from Dell that its customers want simpler solutions, they want help with modernization, and they want Dell to maintain a high degree of resiliency in data protection.

TheCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio, covered Dell’s announcements in November and spoke with Dell’s Jeff Boudreau (pictured), president of the Infrastructure Solutions Group, and Travis Vigil, senior vice president of product management, Infrastructure Solutions Group, in exclusive interviews. (* Disclosure below.)

Here are three insights you might have missed:

1. Customers remain concerned about threats and lack confidence in cloud data protection.

In his interview with theCUBE, Boudreau discussed findings from Dell’s most recent Global Data Protection Index report. Released in November, the report captured feedback from 1,000 IT decision makers in 15 countries.

The latest GDPI documented a rise in cyberattacks among respondents, with 67% expressing concern over dealing with malware and ransomware and 70% facing increased risk from cyberthreats affecting employees working remotely. The GDPI report also found that 67% lacked confidence that data across public clouds was being fully protected.

“This report was just released and confirms everything we’ve talked about around customer challenges,” Boudreau said. “It highlighted the importance of having a robust, cyber-resilient data protection strategy. We believe there is a better way and better approach in how to handle this.”

2. Security complexity is becoming a major challenge for many enterprises.

The rise of the cybersecurity threat has driven another result: security tool sprawl. One report at the end of last year found that some defending organizations have an average of 46 monitoring tools in place and more than 50% of security operations center teams are drowning in alerts.

Some experts in the security industry believe that tool sprawl is becoming weaponized by malicious actors. Systems configured to monitor incidents can be overwhelmed when a distributed denial of service attack occurs, often creating a smokescreen for distracted SOC personnel to mask an intruder’s real intent.

The ultimate cost of a breach for a company is being out of commission for an extended period of time. This has led Dell and other firms to focus on resiliency as an approach to minimize the damage in a complicated data protection environment.

“There are multiple vendors, multiple contracts, multiple tool chains and none of those work together in this multicloud world,” Boudreau said. “Customers are feeling very exposed and with cyberattacks being more sophisticated, if something goes wrong it’s a real challenge for them to get back up and running quickly. That’s why this is such a big topic for CEOs and businesses around the world.”

3. Dell’s Project Frontier addresses the growing need for portability in security solutions.

The growth of edge computing and enterprise adoption of multiple cloud platforms are compelling CISOs to address the challenges associated with securing the entire stack.

This reality has led Dell to announce a new initiative in October called Project Frontier. Frontier is a software operations platform designed to help enterprises securely manage edge applications, including the safe onboarding of new devices.

Dell’s latest initiative includes an automation feature to securely deploy edge infrastructure, a response to customer concern around security tool complexity. Among Fortune 100 companies, 81% are deploying Dell solutions at the edge, according to one executive interviewed by SiliconANGLE. It is an important market for Dell, as it seeks to expand security and simplify operations for its users.

“In addition to simplifying things via the appliance, we are providing solutions for customers no matter where they are deploying,” Vigil said. “We have 1,700 customers protecting 14 exabytes of data in the public cloud today. That foundation gives us a unique vantage point.”

Here’s theCUBE’s complete coverage of “The Future of Multicloud Data Protection Is Here” event:

(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the “The Future of Multicloud Data Protection Is Here” event. Neither Dell Technologies Inc., the sponsor of theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE