The enterprise IT world has moved into a new phase. Until recently, most organizations were rapidly growing infrastructure to meet escalating business demand.

However, as the economy cooled and as cyber threats grew, the focus has shifted more toward protecting infrastructure than growing it.

“Now when we’re seeing companies reconfigure for what will be the next wave of growth, they need to make sure that their data is protected,” said Daniel Newman (pictured), chief executive officer of The Futurum Group. “If a company’s backup is vulnerable, meaning that data protection is not in place, or if a hacker is able to get access to that backup, then the whole system becomes more at risk. They need to make sure that data is going to be available and that their systems are going to be up and working.”

Newman spoke with theCUBE industry analyst Dave Vellante during the “Navigating the Road to Cyber Resiliency” event. They discussed elements of an effective security strategy and the potential impact of generative AI. (* Disclosure below.)

Root of trust

A key component in building an effective IT strategy is taking a holistic view of protection for the entire stack, according to Newman. This includes elements such as a silicon root of trust, as seen in Intel Corp.’s Trusted Execution Technology or Broadcom Inc.’s process for trusted certificates.

“It’s all about end-to-end cyber across the IT stack,” Newman said. “When you hear companies like Intel talk about TXT or you hear about Broadcom when they talk about root of trust capabilities in their network interface cards, really what they’re talking about is hardware to software to humans, putting the right technology in that enables end to end. That’s why companies are picking certain hardware to go in certain devices.”

Looming on the horizon for IT organizations is rapidly expanding interest in the application of generative AI technologies such as ChatGPT.

“Generative AI is probably one of the fastest and most disruptive trends that I have ever seen,” Newman said. “It has so quickly become pervasive, and it’s being utilized in ways that are driving all kinds of productivity gains that are giving you access to data. It’s also creating new security risks. Think about how people that are going to try and use these tools are going to be feeding this data into systems where things like privacy and safety and security aren’t even being considered.”

The potential impact of generative AI combined with an increasingly sophisticated threat environment is leading enterprises to address security across the board, from the silicon layer to the human layer, baked into hardware and software.

“More spend is going toward security, companies need to secure their environments,” Newman said. “That investment needs to be made and it needs to be made to try to get ahead of more of these risks. Data protection has to be part of it. I don’t see any other way.”

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the “Navigating the Road to Cyber Resiliency” event.

And you can watch the complete “Navigating the Road to Cyber Resiliency” program here:

(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the “Navigating the Road to Cyber Resiliency” 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