The daily lives of IT staff are getting anything but easier. According to Enterprise Systems Group, 75% of IT managers surveyed say that IT is more complex than ever¹ and nearly as many say that complexity is slowing their IT operations and digital transformation.²
The onslaught of newly discovered security weaknesses and cyberattacks adds more complexity. To exacerbate the situation, there’s a growing labor shortage of IT infrastructure operations specialists, the worst it’s been since the great recession of 2008³, and there are more than 4 million open cybersecurity positions worldwide.4
Dell Technologies meets these challenges through infrastructure systems with built-in intelligent automation that relieves system administrators of many manual tasks, security engineered end-points for out-of-the-box defense, cybersecurity resiliency and recovery solutions, managed detection and response and AIOps software for proactive infrastructure and cybersecurity operations.
AIOps Software Speeds IT
Dell Technologies’ CloudIQ AIOps application, originally designed several years ago to help IT administrators proactively manage the health, performance, and capacity of Dell infrastructure products, was extended last year to proactively manage infrastructure security configurations. With IT’s need for speed, CloudIQ pays off. Recently polled users indicated that CloudIQ speeds time to resolution of infrastructure issues 2X to 10X.5
Just as CloudIQ is intended to save IT staff from hours of administrative tasks and systems health troubleshooting (nine hours per week on average according to polls6), it is also designed to eliminate hours of manually checking and re-checking infrastructure security configurations, the foundation of a solid cybersecurity strategy. It continuously assesses IT systems, notifies you of security misconfigurations, and recommends the right settings according to your chosen policy.
New AIOps Feature for Speeding Cybersecurity System Updates
To help further speed resolution of cybersecurity issues, CloudIQ now consolidates security advisories about vulnerabilities in Dell infrastructure products discovered by Dell security specialists and the industry at large. Most often these involve weaknesses of technologies that are used across the IT industry (e.g., open source software or third-party chips). Having a common console for addressing security misconfigurations and security advisories helps improves awareness and streamlines resolution.
Typically, IT infrastructure vendors’ security advisories are email-based, provide crucial details about security weaknesses that expose IT components to potentially successful attacks and suggest remediation (e.g., software patches or new firmware or operating system releases). But traditional email security advisories require users to confirm their system’s exact firmware and software build and look through tables of information on a security website to confirm if the email advisory applies to their system’s specific software or firmware build. In a security-sensitive world, that’s precious time that leaves your systems vulnerable to attack longer.
CloudIQ Cybersecurity cuts time by proactively confirming if your system has the software or firmware build with the discovered vulnerability, and links directly to Dell’s security portal for downloading the patch or new code release to fix it. With CloudIQ, the process is programmed, faster and out of the box.
What’s Inside CloudIQ Security Advisories and How They Work
The first release of security advisories consolidated in CloudIQ applies to two premier Dell storage products (PowerStore and PowerMax) for continuous and automatic detection of missing security patches or system software or firmware release updates. Our strategy is to consolidate advisories for other Dell infrastructure systems into CloudIQ.
CloudIQ’s built-in intelligence evaluates outgoing Dell Security Advisories to learn which systems and specific firmware/software builds are vulnerable and displays only those advisories that apply to a user’s deployed systems. This enables users to immediately focus on remediation instead of reading every advisory email and researching their validity before remediation even can begin.
PowerStore security advisories will be clearly displayed in the CloudIQ user interface and will enable cybersecurity users easy access to the relevant Dell Security Advisory that contains an explanation and patches or release updates to close the security gap. PowerMax advisories in the CloudIQ UI will afford instant and full transparency with Dell ProSupport specialists who perform patches and upgrades per standard PowerMax maintenance contracts.
Among the many factors that successful IT depends on today, modern intelligent infrastructure with automation coupled with software for intelligent insights are foundational. Together they speed daily system administration and security processes for fast results and free staff to focus on other business priorities. CloudIQ AIOps software combines intelligent insights for daily operations and cybersecurity into one convenient interface.
For a CloudIQ Cybersecurity demo and data sheet and more AIOps information, go to the CloudIQ webpage and scroll to the Newest Offerings section.
1 ESG, Dell CloudIQ: AIOps for Intelligent IT Infrastructure Insights,” September 2021
2 ESG, “Dell CloudIQ: Changing the Infrastructure Management Game,” September 2021
3 Harvey Nash Group Ltd. and KPMG LLP, “Digital Leadership Report 2021: What’s Keeping Tech Leaders Awake at Night as They Look Beyond the Pandemic?,” 2021
4 International Information System Security Certification Consortium, Inc. (ISC)2, “2021 Cybersecurity Workforce Security Survey: A Resilient Cybersecurity Profession Charts the Path Forward,” 2021.
5 Based on CloudIQ user survey conducted by Dell Technologies, May-June 2021. Actual results may vary. CLM-000884
6 Based on CloudIQ user survey conducted by Dell Technologies, May-June 2021. Actual results may vary. CLM-003866
