Data Integration

5 Ways A Hybrid Integration Platform Can Make Your Data More Secure

Actian Corporation

April 1, 2019

Data Security represented by a secure digital lock

Core to the success of any digital business transformation is the ability to rapidly and securely bridge intra- and inter-enterprise hybrid IT environments; including cloud, on-premises, and embedded applications and their associated data.

Digital Supply Chain integration and management is a strategic imperative for the modern enterprise and Industrial Internet of Things (IIOT) alike.

Data security is one of the top concerns for modern CIOs.  As companies digitally transform their business processes, users across the company become more reliant on IT systems to do their daily jobs.  Those systems need to communicate with each other to create seamless user experiences that are both effective and secure.

The web of data connections in your IT environment is an area prone to security vulnerabilities and potentially exposing your company to intellectual property risk and data loss.

The following are 5 ways a hybrid integration platform like Actian Data Connect can help IT organizations better manage their data connections and keep the company secure.

1. Manage All Your Connections in One Place Through a Management Console

Modern IT environments are complex and for them to work properly in support of your business, individual systems need to share data with each other. Managing a bunch of point-to-point interactions not only requires a lot of administrative overhead, it also makes it difficult for you to effectively manage changes.

Managing your data connections through a hybrid integration platform gives you a “single pane of glass” or centralized place to manage, monitor and update all of your data connections so you can keep your IT environment and business processes running smoothly.

The user interface that orchestrates all components of the iPaaS solution. The console is generally hosted in the iPaaS vendor’s cloud. Similar to a design studio, the console is used to define data paths and transformations. The user interface also deploys and manages integration engines. The console monitors performance and operational functions, including the creation of alerts. Metadata travels between each integration engine and the console.

Citizen integrators use the console to create nontechnical data integrations. Vendor connector ecosystems are also accessed via this console.

2. Control What Systems Are Accessing Your Data

Managing data access in individual systems creates a high risk for un-authorized access.  While a source system may be restricted, data in downstream system may still be exposed.

A hybrid integration platform enables you to establish policies and centrally manage which systems and users have access to individual data sets. Keep your sensitive data secure while enabling authorized systems and users to access it through governed data connections.

3. Ensure Secure Connection Protocols Between Systems

The wide variety of system components in your IT ecosystem make securing data connections difficult.  While some enterprise class components may use robust security protocols, consumer grade devices, some in-house developed applications and 3rd party services may not have the security management capabilities that you need.

A hybrid integration platform enables you to use the most robust security protocols available for each component and isolate your organization from potential risks.

4. Respond Confidently to Security Issues

Companies are being bombarded with information security threats continuously. Even with the best designed solutions, incidents will happen and your IT team needs to be ready to respond.

Managing data connections through a hybrid integration platform enables you to quickly and confidently disconnect compromised components from your IT ecosystem to prevent hackers from leveraging back-doors into your other IT systems.  Once the threat has been neutralized, the component can be easily re-connected to enable normal processing to resume.

5. Update Credentials

Information security best practices suggest that system passwords and other credentials be updated periodically to ensure they aren’t mis-used. If your environment has a lot of point-to-point data connections, password updates require changes to multiple systems and there is a good likelihood that something will get missed and your business processes will be impacted.

A hybrid integration platform provides you a centralized place to manage and update credentials so you can be confident that password changes are performed effectively and safely.

Securing company data is essential for mitigating risks and ensuring continuity of your digital business processes. Actian DataConnect has built-in security measures to address modern, risk-based security in hybrid cloud environments where traditional perimeter security falls short.

DataConnect’s architecture has been designed to focus on security at the user and application levels; leveraging existing customer security systems and policies, isolating running processes, in-depth user and role-based permission schemas, token-based authentication and encrypted macro files to keep passwords and metadata secure.

Actian Data Connect can help you do that by providing you a centralized system for managing the connections between all your IT systems, whether they be on-premises, in the cloud, 3rd party services or IoT devices.

To learn more about Data Connect, visit www.actian.com/dataconnect

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About Actian Corporation

Actian makes data easy. We deliver cloud, hybrid, and on-premises data solutions that simplify how people connect, manage, and analyze data. We transform business by enabling customers to make confident, data-driven decisions that accelerate their organization’s growth. Our data platform integrates seamlessly, performs reliably, and delivers at industry-leading speeds.