Providing better insights for security and cost savings on the Public Cloud
INDUSTRY
Service Provider
BUSINESS BENEFITS
A leading provider of cloud and managed services across India and the globe, Hitachi Systems Micro Clinic is committed to enabling customers to deploy the most advanced IT solutions without compromise. Xi Beam, a cloud governance service by Nutanix, enables the firm’s cloud customers to continuously check for security vulnerabilities and maintain compliance with security regulations—while also helping them save 30 to 40 percent on cloud utilization expenses.
CHALLENGES
- Enable comprehensive security checks for HIPAA, PCI, and other compliance requirements, as well as support for custom security policies on the public cloud.
- Offer fuss-free automated monthly reports and inventory listing for improved infrastructure visibility and insight.
- Identify underutilized or idle resources to unlock 30-40% cost savings for end customers.
SOLUTION
- Xi Beam by Nutanix
APPLICATIONS
- Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud offerings
Beam has helped us in many aspects, enabling us to add value for customers by helping them in saving costs, as well as giving them best practices for cyber security. It delivers substantial ROI and enables us to help customers optimize and manage their AWS infrastructure.
Anjali Sharma, Cloud Engineer, Hitachi Systems Micro Clinic
CHALLENGES
Hitachi Systems Micro Clinic is proud of its ability to deliver end to end IT solutions to clients across industries. Many of their customers run some applications and workloads on the cloud. However, they are concerned about putting security and compliance at risk. “Although many customers are willing to move basic or internal applications to the cloud, they are not yet confident that they can migrate their ERP applications, or their very large applications,” said Sharma. “Many enterprise customers simply prefer a traditional infrastructure model, and it becomes difficult for us to change their mindset."
SOLUTIONS
To address customers’ concerns, Hitachi Systems Micro Clinic needed a solution that could deliver insight into security vulnerabilities, as well as cloud resource usage, to optimize efficiency. After evaluating several options, the firm chose Xi Beam by Nutanix. “We really liked the services that Beam offered, in terms of giving ROI recommendations as well as its ability to offer cost savings,” said Sharma. “We found Beam to be very helpful and efficient.”
Beam, a multi-cloud security compliance and cost optimization service delivered by Nutanix, gives Hitachi Systems Micro Clinic in-depth visibility and rich analytics detailing cloud consumption patterns, together with the ability to enable continuous cloud security and compliance, as well as take one-click remediation actions. Hitachi Systems Micro Clinic uses the solution internally, and also gives end customers access to Beam for monitoring their environments.
CUSTOMER OUTCOME
Comprehensive security best practices – a key winning differentiator
Beam provides a distinct advantage over competitive offerings through its comprehensive security best practices that are embedded within the service.
A single dashboard view shows Hitachi Systems Micro Clinic where vulnerabilities exist, and how to quickly eliminate them. “Beam provides actionable insights into customers’ compliance with HIPAA, PCI, and other key regulations, and also provides support for creating customized security audits and policies,” said Sharma.
Highlighting open port and identity and access management (IAM) risks
Beam also delivers alerts on open network and data security ports that might allow unauthorized usage. “One of our customers was moving some of their infrastructure to AWS. When their development team was provisioning some servers, they accidentally left all ports open to all IPs! Beam was able to detect this misconfiguration, allowed us to fix the vulnerability with just one-click, thereby preventing the possibility of those open ports being exploited for a security breach.”
Beam was also able to highlight security risks related to how the customer was configuring AWS IAM roles. “Using Beam, we were able to track the IAM profiles that users created in their AWS environment, and understood risks associated with them. Beam has really helped our customer secure their AWS infrastructure,” said Sharma.
Fuss-free inventory listings and automated monthly reports
“Beam is also helpful in its ability to provide inventory listings and automated monthly reports, to help customers understand their AWS infrastructure and analyze what resources are tagged or untagged for chargeback purposes.” This feature was most well used especially during audits or data sanitization checks.
Identify significant potential cost savings of 30-40%
Providing better insight into resource usage has also enabled Hitachi Systems Micro Clinic end customers to save money by identifying underutilized or idle resources. “Beam is typically able to discover 30 to 40 percent potential cost savings opportunities for our end-customers,” said Sharma.
Great customer support from Beam
“Our team has received continuous support from Nutanix team. Quarterly tech sessions have helped seamlessly use the service with updated features.”
NEXT STEPS
Beam has plans to incorporate artificial intelligence (AI) and enhance the existing machine learning (ML) capabilities to provide more advanced and sophisticated recommendations for enhancing security and reducing costs. Hitachi Systems Micro Clinic will be eagerly looking forward to the launch of these features along with several automation features to further improve their workflow efficiencies.