Understanding the Concept of an Air Gap
An air gap refers to a security concept that relies on the principle that if data is physically isolated and inaccessible, it is protected from infection or corruption.
This concept is often implemented in the IT industry by creating a duplicate copy of production data on a secondary storage system kept offline and disconnected from any production or public networks.
As long as this gap is maintained, the offline copy of data remains protected from attacks and corruption.
Air Gap Data Protection
Companies typically rely on this air gap data as a last-resort backup, enhancing their existing backup, recovery, and disaster recovery strategies to provide an additional layer of protection.
In addition to safety, having an air gap enables rapid recovery during a significant attack.
However, it’s important to note that implementing an air gap can come with higher costs.
Many vendors promote purchasing separate hardware for production and the air gap, leading to increased expenses.
This higher cost has limited the adoption of traditional hardware-based air gap strategies.
There are different types of air gaps, including array, backup, and object-based air gaps, each offering unique approaches to achieving data isolation and protection.