Report on NAB Show 2024

This report, published on May 2, 2024, was written by Ken Clipperton, analysts at Data Center Intelligence Group LLC (DCIG).

Key Takeaway from the NAB Show 2024

I visited multiple exhibitors at the recent National Association of Broadcasters Show (NAB Show 2024) to learn more about their latest data management and storage offerings.

NAB Show 2024 outdoor entrance

Key Takeaway
Shocking Lack of Cybersecurity Awareness Among Some Providers

Some storage and data management solution providers I talked with on the floor of the NAB Show demonstrated a shocking lack of cybersecurity awareness. One exhibitor responded to my inquiry about cybersecurity features in their product with a puzzled expression and then said, “If a customer wants to turn on immutable snapshots, we could do that.”

This lack of awareness surprised me, especially given that a recent survey of Fortune 500 CEOs identified cybersecurity threats as one of their top 2 concerns.

Where is the disconnect happening? When I asked Jason Lohrey, founder and CEO of Arcitecta, Inc., about the disconnect, he suggested that other providers might be communicating mainly with IT staff instead of executives. The IT staff in many companies are overwhelmed by the daily demands of their organizations and may assume that the security teams are responsible for all aspects of cyber resilience.

Fortunately, some enterprise storage providers and data management software companies, such as Arcitecta, have implemented cyber resiliency features in their solutions. They are also adding stronger protections, particularly around capabilities that help their customers quickly identify, respond to, and recover from cybersecurity incidents. For example, Arcitecta’s Point in Time Ransomware Rapid Recovery Solution provides studios with instant recovery from a ransomware attack.

Advice to Business and IT Leaders
In a sense, cybersecurity is everyone’s job. But there are key individuals and groups that should be collaborating to promote effective cybersecurity.

These include staff from:

• Human Resources
• IT Security
• IT Operations
• Legal
• Physical Security
• Public Relations
• The Security Operations Center

All of these departments have contributions to make to a company’s cybersecurity posture, but infrastructure architects and managers have especially significant opportunities to protect the business from cybercriminals in maintaining continuous access to applications and data, and in protecting that data from exfiltration. Business leaders should verify that their IT and Security teams are collaborating effectively to protect the business from cybercriminals by enabling rapid detection, response, and recovery from the inevitable cybersecurity attacks on the business.

When evaluating storage and data management providers:

• Ask what they are doing to enable their customers to implement the NIST Cybersecurity Framework.
• Ask what they are doing to secure their solutions from cybercriminals. Among other things, ask about multi-factor authentication, multiple approvals for some actions, how they are securing their supply chain and how they are protecting their code.