IT Expert Sam Tenorio III Explains Automation and Data Center Cloud Security
Accordingly to the Synergy Research Group, at the end of 2017, there were 390 web-scale data centers worldwide, up 300 from the previous year. Today, hyperscale data centers are driving a sense of urgency for automation.
Sam Tenorio, the founder and CEO of Seamless Advanced Solutions (SAS), was awarded the opportunity to build a state-of-the-art data center on the RELLIS Campus at Texas A&M University at College Station. Assembling a team of developers, architects and contractors, Sam Tenorio will shortly begin the construction process. As an expert in the field, Sam Tenorio is here to outline the future of automation and data center cloud security.
What is Data Center Automation?
Data center automation, for anyone who does not know, “is the process by which routine workflows and processes of a data center (including scheduling, monitoring, maintenance, application delivery, etc.) are managed and executed without human administration”.
Sam Tenorio explains that automation takes data and applies analytics and machine learning to that data to help identify inefficiencies and trouble spots — as well as their origins. Above all else, he explains that automated data centers increase agility and operational efficiency.
For many years, the concept of an automated data center was completely unimaginable. However, Sam Tenorio explains that there are now multiple forces that are turning the automated data center into a reality. The first innovation is real-time visibility. As an issue can occur anywhere on a virtualized hybrid infrastructure, this issue can reverberate through the network to create problems elsewhere. As you can imagine, this can make the resolution of issues a never-ending task. The best defense is to build real-time visibility. The second is real-time analytics. Real-time analytics and correlation help make sense of real-time data in order to make it actionable. Lastly, closed-loop systems allow humans to delegate decision-making to technology.
Improved Security
According to Sam Tenorio, given the complexity of clouds operations, automation is key to improved security. Cyber threats have inevitably evolved in sophistication and quantity, which makes identifying and repairing security gaps in your cloud infrastructure increasingly more important. Automations primary aim is to make all cloud-related activities as fast and efficient as possible, without manual intervention. Sam Tenorio explains that the goal is to eliminate vulnerabilities wherever possible. As has been evidenced, the threat surface area in the cloud is large.
The Future of Automation and Data Center Cloud Security According to Tenorio
Researchers at the University of Pisa argued in a 2016 report that “hyperscale data centers would have to rely on automated systems to be able to manage the overwhelming number of day-today issues their servers generate”. When considering automation, Sam Tenorio explains that you need to come to terms with one sobering factor: human error. Today’s enterprises have so much information moving around that humans have very little hope of keeping up, so naturally, the human element remains the weakest link in cloud security.
