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THE NEW WORLD OF DATA IS BIG... 3 BIG DATA CAN POSE A BIG PROBLEM... 3 BIG DATA CAN POSE A BIG SECURITY RISK... 4 DELIVERING BIG DATA BENEFITS WITHOUT BIG HEADACHES... 5 COUCHBASE & VORMETRIC MAKES BIG DATA USEFUL & USEABLE... 6 ABOUT VORMETRIC... 6
THE NEW WORLD OF DATA IS BIG Big Data is poised to revolutionize virtually every industry today. With a population of 3 billion users online around the world and approximately 35 billion hours spent online every month, the sheer amount of data available on usage trends is staggering. As the trend toward the Internet of Things continues to emerge, still more vital information will become available. Organizations of all types are eager to utilize this data to develop the next product, service or application, but working with Big Data is not always straightforward. The definition of Big Data, first cited in 2001, include the three V s; volume, velocity and varietyi. Each poses unique issues that must be considered for Big Data to become a useful asset. Big Data is not simply a large quantity of information the format and dynamic nature of this content creates a completely new challenge. At the same time that organizations seek to make the most of Big Data, issues around data privacy and security have also become increasingly prevalent. Many organizations already struggle with these issues in their existing IT implementation. When you consider risks associated with a breach of petabytes of data, the challenge becomes daunting. And then organizations must consider who owns the data itself, since Big Data can be broken into two parts the data itself and the information derived from the data. Perhaps the biggest conclusion is that organizing, using and securing Big Data poses a fundamentally different problem than any previously faced in the IT industry. In this paper, we will examine issues that should be considered during the adoption of Big Data. Then we ll look at the growth of the No SQL database to handle Big Data-specific problems, and at how Couchbase provides a solution. Finally, we will consider the need for security to complete a Couchbase deployment, as well as the variety of product offerings from industry leader, Vormetric. BIG DATA CAN POSE A BIG PROBLEM A popular adage holds that the more information involved, the better then resulting analysis. As the use of the internet has exploded, so too has the amount of raw data that can be presented to draw a conclusion. The evolution of the Internet of Things adds still another source of valuable information about users and their habits. In fact, according to research firm IDC, by 2020 32 billion things will be connected to the Internet, 10% of all data will be generated by embedded system, and 21% of the most valuable target rich data will be generated by embedded systemsii. This huge quantity of data sets can be combined and parsed to offer new insights to everything from medicine and research to retail and advertising. In fact, the sheer size of Big Data had posed an initial roadblock to its use, but the availability of cloud storage has effectively eliminated this challenge. The issues posed by Big Data, however, are also considerable. The first concern is the data itself. A typical relational database, with its easily defined and measured structure, was and remains an excellent fit for certain types of data. These databases are well understood and many tools exist to mine their traditional row/column structure. The issue occurs when the data does not match the schema of the database, or when the size grows prohibitively large. Much of what is referred to as Big Data is unstructured data such as text, multimedia, webpages, files, photos and many other types of content. While each file type has its own internal organization, when considered in aggregate such datasets simply do not fit into a traditional database. And this is significant, as experts estimate that 80-90 percent of the data in any organization is unstructured and difficult to analyze, often requiring a combination of tools. Big Data, and the sources of the datasets that make it up, are also inherently unpredictable. An application that goes viral could top out a traditional relational database in a very short time. Seasonal swings in use could generate a deluge of users that rapidly recedes to very few. New products or promotions can create a dramatic traffic spike which may decline. Such situations require an elastic solution, which is not well suited to a traditional relational database. RDMs, which are built on a centralized, share-everything model, are usually built to scale up, not often do not scale out well, let alone dynamically.
One answer to these issues is the adoption of Not only SQL, or NoSQL, databases. NoSQL databases, such as those from industry leader Couchbase, are built from the ground up to be distributed technologies. As such, Couchbase is designed to take advantage of the cloud. That means that scale-out is simple and affordable. NoSQL are also objectoriented, which allows them to aggregate datasets into single objects. This can lead to duplication, but with the Couchbase platform s ability to take advantage of the cloud, this is no longer an issue. The load is able to easily grow by distributing itself over lots of ordinary, inexpensive Intel-based servers. Another advantage of Couchbase is the fact that it is essentially schemaless, just like that datasets that it stores. This means that developers can work with information coming from virtually any source, in virtually any format. Fields can be easily added and changed at any time, unlike relational databases in which such changes are extremely disruptive. A good example of using these qualities include telemetry data, in which an embedded device is constantly monitoring and sending data. As this target rich data source grows, it will become vital that it can easily be archived. To overcome these challenges, innovative enterprises are relying on NoSQL technology such as Couchbase to scale concurrent data access to millions of connected devices and systems, store billions of data points, and meet the performance requirements of mission-critical infrastructure and operations BIG DATA CAN POSE A BIG SECURITY RISK The challenge of how to handle Big Data is only partially addressed by the databases that are used to store it, however. One of the most pressing issues around Big Data adoption will be security, as more and more organizations adopt it in the coming years. While the original Big Data technologies were created to facilitate enterprise use, security concerns have crept in despite self-contained or built in aspects such as controls at the database level such as SSL connections, LDAP-based authentication, and auditing. But what about at the security controls at the system, application, OS and network level? As the use of Big Data becomes increasingly business critical and as the volume of data, users and applications in these environments grows, the need to detect and block unauthorized access to sensitive data increases as well. For complete security, it is vital that such controls be implemented simply and in the most non-intrusive means possible to ensure low latency and consistent application. The question of securing this dynamic and growing collection of sensitive data has quickly moved from whether encryption is necessary to how it can be accomplished. Enter Vormetric. Vormetric s Data Security Platform is designed to marry seamlessly with Couchbase Big Data solutions. The Vormetric Data Security Platform delivers high-performance encryption, easy-to-use integrated key management, privileged user access control and file access security intelligence logs. Vormetric makes it easy to protect data-at-rest, but also provides security for nonobvious assets such as configuration files, system logs, error files, audits and more - any of which could reveal vulnerabilities. Central policy and key management is accomplished with the Vormetric Data Security Manager (DSM). The solution is easily integrated with existing authentication schemes such as LDAP and Active Directory, and can be deployed as a FIPS 140-2 hardware appliance or virtual appliance.
At the system level, Vormetric blocks audit access to the Couchbase infrastructure by non-couchbase machine operators, such as system administrators like root. At the application level, Vormetric Data Masking and Tokenization allows you to obscure portions of a file, to ensure that users only have access to the information that they need. Not only does this feature provide flexibility, it can also support PCI DSS requirement and serve to reduce the scope of any audit. Vormetric Transparent Encryption features a software agent that runs in the file system to encrypt both structured databases and unstructured files. The addition of Vormetric to a Couchbase infrastructure enables end-to-end capabilities that include: Centralized policies for granular access controls; centralized keys for stronger ownership and governance of data. These policies can go beyond the Couchbase environment to provide end-to-end coverage, including ingress (source) and egress (reports and analytics) points Encryption, centralized key management, privileged user access control and security intelligence logs for dataat-rest across the Couchbase environment, such as ingress data and egress reports, as well as configuration files and audit logs Transparently protect new and complex structured and unstructured data types at the file system level as well as within the data store at the field or column level via Vormetric Transparent Encryption Simplify adding tokenization to applications with tools that include sample code and Resftful API support for Couchbase integration with Vormetric Tokenization. Generate security intelligence logs on data access by users, process and application access data anywhere across the Couchbase infrastructure. Maintain SLAs with high-performance encryption and high available data security architecture. Ensure top performance and lowest possible latency with Transparent Encryption agents distributed across the infrastructure All of the above without reengineering or reconfiguring existing infrastructure DELIVERING BIG DATA BENEFITS WITHOUT BIG HEADACHES The correlation of data across a wide variety of structured and unstructured forms is poised to change the way companies do business. Couchbase makes this data useable, with market-leading technology designed to make the most of NoSQL architecture. The addition of Vormetric s comprehensive portfolio of security offerings ensure that the data stays private and secure, from hackers and insiders alike. Employing encryption with granular access control technology provides both organizations and individuals the peace of mind needed to remain secure in this insecure world. Vormetric's enterprise grade offerings provide an end-to-end security solution that is transparent in use and simple to deploy, as the complete requirements for compliance and security in a Couchbase deployment.
COUCHBASE & VORMETRIC MAKES BIG DATA USEFUL & USEABLE With Couchbase, organizations can now reap the benefits of Big Data analysis across their enterprise. The information generated provides incredibly useful data points that can aid in decisions from user interactions to network infrastructure. The addition of Vormetric to a Couchbase deployment erases the very real concerns around security and compliance, making the data useable without increasing risk. Both Couchbase and Vormetric have been built around the fundamental combination of data collection, integrity and security at scale, enabling the joint solution to deliver Big Data findings in their optimal form. i Source: META Group. "3D Data Management: Controlling Data Volume, Velocity, and Variety." February 2001. ii Citation from the Couchbase site ABOUT VORMETRIC A leader in data security solutions, Vormetric (@Vormetric) protects data-at-rest in physical, virtual, big data and cloud environments. Trusted by businesses and governments for over a decade, the Vormetric Data Security Platform secures the data of more than 1,500 global enterprises including 17 of the Fortune 30. With Vormetric, a single infrastructure and management environment protects data wherever it resides with file, volume and cloud storage encryption, tokenization with dynamic data masking, field-level application encryption, sophisticated access control policies, third party and integrated encryption key management. For more information, please visit: www.vormetric.com. Copyright 2015 Vormetric, Inc. All rights reserved. Vormetric is a registered trademark of Vormetric, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written consent of Vormetric.