IBM Z and healthcare: when data protection is crucial to your business

IBM’s “Big Iron” mainframe immediately conjures up images: rock solid, dependable,  security-rich—everything you might want and need in a platform.

Is it any surprise that so many top companies rely on IBM Z, the new modern mainframe? These industries depend on the stability of the platform—in fact, they bet their business on it.  They know their most critical workloads demand the mainframe, and IBM Z delivers the solution.

So it’s no wonder that the IBM Z is creating such a buzz with the introduction of pervasive encryption. Clients want to encrypt their data, but it’s so complex.  Every day they have to face difficult questions such as:

• “Who is responsible for implementing encryption?”
• “What data do I need to encrypt?”
• “Where to encrypt it – at the application level?”
• “Where are the gaps that could create an exposure?”

IBM Z makes pervasive encryption of data possible — all the time. Organizations can pervasively encrypt data associated with an entire application, cloud service or database in-flight or at-rest with one click.

IBM Z can also help support regulatory compliance efforts, helping organizations protect the privacy of patients. Being able to identify and classify this sensitive data can be a daunting and cumbersome task. With pervasive encryption, the guesswork is gone, and your work towards compliance simplified.

Through tight platform integration with the hardware, operating system and middleware, encryption can extend beyond regulatory compliance efforts, to help prepare for the unexpected.  Look at the differentiators that set IBM Z apart from other platforms:

• Encryption performance that’s 18x faster at one-twentieth the cost of comparable x86-based platforms
• Encryption of data at-rest through file and data set encryption
• Protection and monitoring of all network traffic in and out of the system with intelligent reporting capabilities
• The ability to build and deploy applications as appliances using Secure Service Containers (Linux on Z)
• Hardware-based encryption keys are never exposed in the clear to the OS, hypervisor, or application

We believe healthcare organizations should plan as if attackers are already within their data centers, trolling for information to steal. I believe the best way to thwart these attackers is with security controls on IBM Z.   That means the ability to encrypt data where the data resides; at the system of record.

Data is your most critical asset – protect it with IBM Z.

Visit IBM Booth #6243 at HIMSS 2018 and let’s discuss how IBM’s pervasive encryption capabilities can help your organization.

Not going to HIMSS? Learn more about IBM Z and enabling success in healthcare.