For strictly regulated industries, there’s nothing more important than ensuring that data is safe and secure. Data security and compliance are the first concerns for organizations in regulated sectors like healthcare and finance. These industries often require high-performance infrastructures, granular control, and enhanced data security, and this brings bare metal servers into the spotlight. Unlike with other environments, where some assets are shared, bare metal servers serve one client exclusively, making them more secure and thus the ideal option for industries where data confidentiality, integrity, and availability are a must.
This blog will unpack the essentials of bare metal servers compliance, the most important things to know about bare metal servers, and their advantages when it comes to meeting regulatory requirements.
A Quick Introduction to Bare Metal Servers
Before digging into the details of bare metal servers’ compliance, let’s take a look first at what bare metal servers are.
Bare metal servers are single-tenant or dedicated physical servers with exclusive access to the hardware resources only for the company or the owner using it. This exclusivity allows companies complete freedom to configure, optimize performance, and secure sensitive data without having to worry about the risks associated with shared environments. Also, contrary to managed hosting, where the provider has control over the hypervisor, these servers allow complete control over how resources are used and allocated. Thanks to single-tenancy and the isolated environment, bare metal servers compliance is easily achieved. Isolation protects from side-channel attacks and similar attempts at data theft, which are known risks of co-tenancy, making bare metal the most secure option out of all the options available today.
Regulated Sectors and Compliance
Compliance, by definition, means conforming to industry standards, regulations, and data protection laws that govern how organizations in regulated sectors handle data. It is non-negotiable for organizations that handle sensitive company and client information, like healthcare and financial. Compliance, and especially bare metal servers compliance, comes with a number of functional benefits as well, ensuring ease of mind for companies and their clients. On the other hand, not taking compliance seriously can lead to data loss and the associated loss of customer trust, in addition to serious fines.
Regulated industries have several compliance standards to adhere to. Organizations in the healthcare industry have to comply with HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) and GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation). In the industry of finance, the GDPR, SOX (Sarbanes-Oxley Act), and the PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) are guiding organizations in handling sensitive financial data.
The fines and penalties associated with not respecting compliance regulations can have grave consequences. To avoid these, businesses in regulated sectors need reliable solutions that can help them increase operational efficiency and avoid hefty fines. Bare metal server compliance can significantly improve an organization’s security posture. Plus, it provides a shield against data breaches in a landscape of evolving cyber threats. It offers the highest grade of flexibility and resiliency, which cannot be overstated when it comes to keeping data safe.
The Benefits of Bare Metal Servers Compliance for Regulated Sectors
Because of the motives stated above, compliance is non-negotiable for regulated sectors. However, looking further than the obligations, bare metal server compliance also comes with many benefits. These can significantly improve an organization’s operational efficiency. These are the following.
Granular Control
The first and foremost benefit of bare metal server compliance comes from these types of servers, allowing the most granular control over everything. Because these servers are dedicated to a single tenant, special configurations are possible, allowing organizations to fine-tune everything according to their compliance needs. The fine-tuning can include anything from air-gapping to monitoring, firewalls, and detailed control of maintenance, updates, and security patches. This particularized management allows businesses to meet rigorous compliance requirements much more easily.
Enhanced Physical and Network-Level Security
Bare metal server compliance greatly enhances both physical and network-level security. With dedicated hardware, the risks associated with shared environments disappear. While data isolation in shared environments cannot be assured 100%, bare metal servers permit complete physical and network isolation, guaranteeing data integrity and privacy. By isolating resources, they prevent data cross-contamination and support secure network segmentation, reducing attack surfaces and preventing unauthorized access. This high level of control is crucial for businesses in regulated sectors, like healthcare, where protecting patient data is critical. Securing the environment where sensitive data is stored and processed can protect against data breaches and their harsh consequences, both legally and financially.
Security Configuration Options
Bare metal server compliance offers robust security configuration options crucial for regulated industries. Meeting compliance requirements in healthcare, for example, typically implies ensuring that patient data encryption is ensured, whether in transit or at rest. Bare metal provides dedicated hardware, allowing for advanced security measures and features, like custom firewalls, intrusion detection systems (IDSs), multi-factor authentication (MFA), and encrypted storage. Full control over the server environment enables businesses to implement strict access controls and real-time monitoring. This approach helps organizations meet compliance standards and protect sensitive data efficiently, making bare metal a preferred choice for organizations with high-security needs.
Stronger Data Resiliency
For organizations in regulated industries, data resiliency is a key concern. Bare metal servers can offer a plus compared to other options. For example, enhancing data resiliency by providing dedicated hardware for robust backup and disaster recovery purposes. This guarantees minimal downtime, a key concern in industries where high availability is vital.
In concordance with the concept of data sovereignty, the data must comply with the data sovereignty laws of the country of its residence. In some cases, the data must also comply with the laws and regulations of the country of its origin (where the data was generated). All sensitive information stored within the EU, for instance, is subject to the GDPR, regardless of the country of its origin. Hosting bare metal servers in a compliant data center can offer stronger data resiliency and significantly reduce the stress of navigating the complexity of sovereignty laws.
Transparency
Regulatory compliance requires clear audit trails and transparency in data management. Auditors can ask organizations to provide detailed records of data processing and storage. Bare metal server compliance can simplify this by providing enhanced visibility and control over server activities. They enable businesses to monitor and log all server activity, generate performance and data access reports, and maintain detailed audit trails. This transparency makes it possible for businesses to generate these records instantly on demand. This is crucial for demonstrating compliance and staying clear of penalties during audits.
Performance and Reliability
Data security is at the forefront of compliance; however, compliance encompasses more than that. Compliance regulations also extend to performance. In many cases, a lack of server performance can put an organization at risk of downtime. Slow processing or downtime for companies in the healthcare or financial services industry can come with noncompliance and grave consequences. Because bare metal servers are dedicated to a single organization, resources stay with the sole user, allowing better performance and predictability. Next to improving operational efficiency for the organization, better performance makes adherence to compliance regulations much easier.
Go Bare Metal and Attain Compliance in the Blink of an Eye
Mandatory compliance can be a headache, but not if you can leverage the advantages of bare metal server compliance. For businesses having to meet stringent regulatory requirements, bare metal is the ideal solution. This option has unlimited customizability, full control, and offers the highest performance. These servers combine the best of everything: high performance, granular control, heightened security, and the best solution for safeguarding data against downtime and data breaches. The different regulatory frameworks have different data protection requirements, and bare metal servers offer the easiest way to meet them.
To learn more about bare metal servers, compliance, and how they can help your organization, contact Volico Data Centers.
