The core responsibilities of public sector agencies seem to grow by the year, with the health and well-being of the populace atop the list. Nearly every agency’s duties and decision making processes are increasingly data-driven, however, so the secure collection and transmission of information across diverse areas such as financial services, security, public safety and education are paramount.
It’s not just federal government agencies, either. Organizations at every level are transforming their work processes, moving this critical information from paper-based to digital. The boom in digitization is creating a huge jump in demand for big data products and services, according to industry analysts at GovWin, which forecasts the federal market alone will grow from $2.6 billion in 2018 to $3.5 billion in 2023, a compound annual growth rate of 6.2 percent.
This creates the need for reliable storage solutions that can handle and enable data transfer, data encryption, storage, sharing and archiving. For example, the White House stated in its current President’s Management Agenda, “Modern information technology must function as the backbone of how government serves the public in the digital age. Meeting customer expectations, keeping sensitive data and systems secure, and ensuring responsive, multi-channel access to services are all critical parts of the vision for modern government.”
None of this can happen without storage that can securely store data and both encrypt and erase it completely when needed. Solid state drives (SSDs) check all of the above boxes while providing lower power consumption, faster boot and transfer times and larger capacity potential than traditional hard disk drives (HDD). In addition, SSDs can be used in data centers, on the road or in field offices.
Keeping data safe
Security is arguably the most important aspect of any organization’s data strategy, but the stakes are even higher for the government, given the extensive amount of personally identifiable information that’s created and stored across agencies. Domestic and international bad actors see these data repositories as what they are: treasure troves of Social Security numbers, demographic information and records that can be captured and either used or sold on the dark web. The most recent Verizon “2020 Data Breach Investigations Report” says that of all the data breaches in 2020 to date, 16 percent were in the public sector.
Samsung SSDs help agencies protect data because the encryption is hardware-based. This means the encryption keys are built into the drive controller rather than its system memory. In addition, Samsung’s SSDs are self-encrypting, so data is automatically protected and there’s no chance of a user forgetting to manually encrypt data. Traditional hard drives, on the other hand, use software encryption, which executes encryption using the server’s central processing unit (CPU).
The other side of the drive
Just as important as storing and encrypting data in the public sector is ensuring the proper disposal of that information when it is no longer needed. Securely erasing an SSD works differently than a traditional spinning platter-based hard drive.
Effectively wiping Samsung SSDs comes easily, thanks to Samsung Magician software with secure erase and data security. These features help users maximize the performance and lifetime of their SSDs. When it comes to sensitive information within the public sector, properly disposing of unnecessary data should be as big a consideration as how to store it during the technology buying process.
It might be time to replace your RAID storage with SSDs. Discover the best SSD for your public sector agency with this free assessment.
