The cloud-trend is undeniable.

A growing number of businesses and organisations are using the public cloud to reduce cost and time-to-market capabilities, while retaining agility with increased complexity.

With this increased connectivity comes problems; more exposure to risks from external cyber threats, the inability to manage vast amounts of data, and comply with changing privacy regulation, to name a few.

So what solutions are available to businesses that want to protect and manage data, while having access to the all the possibilities the cloud offers.

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Rubrik, a data management company, announced today that it will be launching the first cloud data management platform – the Rubrik Firefly – to recover, manage, and secure data across the cloud.

According to Rubrik, the platform will enable enterprises to leverage public cloud services to deliver data protection, search and analytics, archiving and compliance, and copy data management capabilities across all their workloads.

Rubrik’s founder, Bipul Sinha, told Information Age that the software will help modernise, and set the standard for, cloud data management.

He said that because of the increasing benefits of the cloud – providing businesses with access to a variety of options and cost efficient – every business wants to leverage the public cloud, even those without it.

Cloud services companies are becoming somewhat of a commodity, seen recently by Oracle’s acquisition of NetSuite for around $9 billion.

This move came after Oracle’s cloud was hacked.

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Data protection is vital for cloud-based businesses, and security should be at the forefront of any cloud data management platform.

Sinha explained to Information Age that comprehensive security should be active on two plains: management and data.

On the management plain, a well trained, competent IT security staff is vital, and the data plain should be equipped with all the necessary encryptions.

As more and more businesses adopt simplified data management solutions to recover, manage, and secure data across private, public, and hybrid clouds, the need to protect and manage the cloud will increase.