Online database servers get tokens to the fail train

By Michael
June 26, 2012

Modern businesses often feel the need to keep the entirety of their data portfolios online in order to quickly and easily access every file they have ever made, ever. The band Queen also wanted it all, and wanted it right now, and that’s why they remain in the 80’s.

Placing critical information in a virtual drive will create a business continuity threat as it leaves a corporation exposed to every outage and theft that crosses its path. On top of that, if IT professionals aren’t aware that a problem exists, there’s no way they can try to circumvent an event, leaving data with no backup tape precariously perched on the brink of loss.

Severe server shortcoming

A common online host client, MySQL, has been integrated into many business databases in order to increase sharing, track customers, monitor internal practices and plethora other purposes. These companies rely on these servers to maintain and protect business continuity, but without taking steps to backup data and squirrel it away from prying eyes, they’re basically inviting an attack.

Also, it turns out MySQL’s security protocols can be broken more easily than a bicycle lock. Apparently MySQL and MariaDB knew about this before releasing the information to its customers, allowing every hacker with enough patience to try about 250 combinations to take a turn at accessing corporate accounts before IT departments were prepared.

Move it or lose it

The solution here is pushing data back to tape management solutions to ensure safety and security. Maintaining information in a readily-available format doesn’t mean keeping it a single click away, especially if it has no business being there. Partitioning information and storing it securely on-site or in another data center can ensure business continuity no matter what kind of failure your other software may suffer.

Infostor pointed out that the likelihood of a hardware failure with backup tape management is four times less likely than with a disk drive. Considering the speed with which other forms of storage degrade and the fact that some don’t have native encryption can make backup tape an ever more appealing option.

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