Being prepared: protecting critical infrastructure through a more resilient model of data hosting

In other words, a new standard of resilience is required for the hosting solutions organisations across the public and private sectors depend on to deliver their services. Fortunately, leading-edge data centres – the breed utilised for hosting Government services – have made considerable strides in this regard, but for organisations to achieve this new standard, they must be able to identify both the right data centres, and the right technology partner to support the migration process.

If you are in the process of reconsidering your own hosting services, here are the key elements to look for:

Diverse networking and connectivity
No two organisations’ networking and connectivity requirements will be exactly the same, especially when it comes to the delivery of critical services across the country. Truly world-class data centres will be built with this level of diversity inherent in design, offering a range of options for securely connecting to corporate infrastructure.

The right accreditations in place
Ideally, any data centre utilised for hosting critical data should be accredited to Pan Government Assured Official or higher. This represents a clear indication that the facilities in question maintain the very highest standards of cyber security, particularly when it comes to the hosting of Cloud services.

Effective business continuity systems
Even the smallest period of downtime will likely result in serious financial and reputational consequences, which means the time between systems going down and coming back online must be kept to the absolute minimum. The use of multiple, geographically dispersed data centres is a highly attractive option here, ensuring backup infrastructure can be deployed and data secured at the earliest opportunity in the event of an incident.

World-class physical security
While cyberattacks continue to grow in sophistication and cyber security ecosystems continuously evolve to stay one step ahead of bad actors, it is important that we do not underestimate the continued importance of physical security. In spite of the advances made in cyber security, human error remains the primary cause of data breaches, which means any data centres chosen to host critical data must have first-class systems in place to mitigate this risk, including access control, integrated cameras and alarms, a single point of entry, and additional systems to secure high-risk areas.

Robust SLAs
Finally, for complete peace of mind, each of these elements should be reflected in robust SLAs, with clear standards in place regarding availability, power, and cooling. 99%+ availability should be considered the baseline and clear disaster recovery processes should be in place.

Achieving a successful migration to the right data centre

Taking all of the above into account, there’s no doubt that any data centre migration will present a significant challenge – from the choice of facilities to ensuring the migration does not lead to any operational disruption or security compromises.
Vysiion have long served as a trusted technology partner for numerous organisations across the public and private sectors in this regard, planning and executing bespoke migrations into the Government-approved Crown Hosting Data Centres, providing access to the numerous these world-class facilities offer in terms of performance, security, and resilience.
To explore your own current level of resilience and establish how best to ensure that you will always be able to stay ahead in an evolving digital landscape, even in the event of the unexpected, just contact us.