Cyber threats are evolving at an unprecedented pace, and traditional, reactive security measures are no longer enough. Organizations need proactive, AI-driven intelligence to identify vulnerabilities, mitigate risks, and strengthen their security posture before attackers strike.
Cybersecurity in APEX AIOps Infrastructure Observability (formerly CloudIQ) provides advanced cybersecurity insights powered by Dell’s deep expertise in its proprietary products. This platform is designed to give IT and security teams real-time, automated visibility into risks, ensuring they stay ahead of emerging threats.
Key Cybersecurity Capabilities
Security Misconfigurations: Automatically detect and remediate security misconfigurations by aligning with the latest Dell product security capabilities.
Security Advisories: Gain real-time detection of Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) in Dell products, along with clear remediation guidance to minimize risk.
Ransomware Detection: Identify and mitigate potential ransomware attacks early, while minimizing damage.
Risk Assessment: Obtain a comprehensive, real-time security posture overview to make proactive, data-driven security decisions.
Below are real-world security challenges faced by organizations and how Dell’s cybersecurity features provide tangible solutions to mitigate risk.
Use Case 1: Preventing Security Drifts in Configurations
Challenge:
A large enterprise deploys 5,000 PowerEdge servers in a data center. At launch, all systems are securely configured, but over the next 6-12 months, updates, patches, and manual changes lead to configuration drift. The CISO has no centralized visibility into these changes, creating hidden security gaps that cybercriminals could exploit.
Solution: Cybersecurity Misconfigurations Feature
The Misconfigurations feature continuously monitors all systems against a predefined security baseline, aligned with NIST guidelines, detecting deviations in real-time and providing remediation steps. Instead of periodic, error-prone manual audits, the IT team receives automated alerts for misconfigurations, ensuring security posture remains intact throughout the system lifecycle.
Impact: Eliminates security blind spots, reducing misconfiguration risks by 40% and strengthening compliance.
Use Case 2: Automating Vulnerability Management
Challenge:
A mid-sized financial services company relies on 1,000 PowerEdge servers. Security teams manually track Dell Security Advisories to identify relevant vulnerabilities, consuming:
- 3 hours per week for real-time updates
- 1–2 days per advisory to assess impact
- 3–4 days per advisory for deep analysis
This manual process leads to delays in patching critical vulnerabilities, leaving the organization exposed to potential exploits.
Solution: Cybersecurity Security Advisories Feature
The Security Advisories feature automates vulnerability tracking, instantly mapping Dell CVEs to the customer’s infrastructure. It provides prioritized remediation guidance, reducing the burden on security teams and accelerating time-to-patch.
Impact: Cuts vulnerability analysis time by 80%, ensuring faster remediation and improved risk management.
Use Case 3: Early Detection and Mitigation of Ransomware Attacks
Challenge:
A financial services company suffered a ransomware attack that targeted primary and backup storage systems, encrypting terabytes of critical financial transaction data. The company faced potential regulatory penalties for data unavailability, operational downtime exceeding 48 hours, and a ransom demand of $6 million.
Solution: Cybersecurity Ransomware Detection Feature
Cybersecurity Ransomware Detection is a built-in AI-driven solution that continuously analyses data behaviour to detect potential ransomware encryption attempts.
Real-time anomaly detection – Monitors changes in data reducibility, spotting unusual encryption activities.
Automated alerts and response – Generates instant alerts to security teams, allowing for rapid isolation of infected systems before the ransomware spreads.
Recovery point details – Provides information about the beginning of the attack, enabling organizations to revert to clean, unencrypted data without paying the ransom.
Impact: Faster threat detection and up to 70% cost savings on ransomware recovery.
Use Case 4: Prioritizing Security Risks Across a Distributed Enterprise
Challenge:
A global retail company operates hundreds of servers across multiple locations, each with its own security vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, and unresolved threats. Security teams struggle to assess risk levels across different sites, making it impossible to prioritize which systems require urgent action.
Solution: Cybersecurity Risk Assessment
The Cybersecurity Risk Assessment feature provides a holistic risk score by analysing:
Unresolved misconfigurations across all systems
Open vulnerabilities (CVEs) identified through Dell Security Advisories
Active ransomware threats detected across locations
This centralized risk scoring allows security teams to prioritize critical issues first, ensuring that the most pressing threats are mitigated before they can be exploited.
Impact: Reduces security response time by 50%, improving risk visibility and enabling a proactive security strategy.
Proactive Security, Simplified
By integrating Security Misconfigurations, Security Advisories, Ransomware Detection, and Risk Assessment, organizations can reduce complexity, enhance security, and stay ahead of evolving threats.
Ready to take control of your security posture? Ensure your Dell product supports APEX AIOps Infrastructure Observability by following the instructions in Appendix A of this guideline. Once enabled, you can activate the Cybersecurity features for your systems.
After signing in, you can also explore an interactive simulator at this address to see it in action.
You can also watch a demo, showing how it all looks, below