31st March is celebrated as World Backup Day. It reminds us to protect our precious digital documents as we’ve become more reliant on technology.
During a time like today, it becomes very relevant to observe such a day because now, the question is no longer whether a company will be the victim of an attack or not, but when it will happen. The day is commemorated as a reminder to make multiple copies of our digital treasures, or risk losing them all forever.
The day also serves to instill better online and technological practices and as an awareness to keep a close watch on cybersecurity threats. In today's world where it is increasingly common for companies to have an online presence and management, it is essential to implement tools that protect all digitized information. Now that cyber-attacks are part of companies' day-to-day business, it is more important than ever to install all possible security measures.
A global research commissioned by Arcserve revealed that most companies will suffer data loss at some point. The findings highlight why having a fast and effective data recovery plan plays an equally important role as data backup. Key findings from the research include -
· 74% of mid-sized companies have experienced data loss in the last five years
· 52% of respondents said that they could not recover all their data after a loss
· 94% say data loss had a direct impact on the way their IT teams operate
· 69% of those say they needed to revise their data recovery plans
· 23% of businesses globally do not test their data recovery plans
The pledge for WORLD BACKUP DAY goes like this -
“I solemnly swear to backup my important documents and precious memories on March 31st.”
Lets hear from the industry folks of what their views are with regards to World Backup Day -
Anshuman Rai, Area Vice President, India & South Asia, Commvault
“The alarming rate of ransomware attacks has put cyber hygiene and data management at the centre of all businesses. In fact, the virtual-first approach leading to collaborative technology and increasing cloud adoption has redefined the role of CIOs. The value of data safe keeping, regular backups, cloud data protection of workloads in your cloud and multi-cloud environments hold the key for businesses to be future-ready and drive maximum value in the digital world.
One of the most vital elements of data protection is how quickly lost data can be recovered, thus, emphasizing the importance of World Backup Day. Today serves as an annual reminder to get data backups in order, so that when the worst does happen, the data can be recovered quickly without seriously impacting business continuity.”
“From smartphones, autonomous vehicles and streaming services, to even the local Mom and Pop shop down the road, the connectivity powered by digital transformation is driving an explosion of data. This exponential growth presents a vast opportunity for businesses to turn data into knowledge and insights that can ultimately shape products, services, and our lives. Yet the complexity and criticality of our information is immense. And protecting it has never been more challenging than the present day as cyber attacks, fueled by the current geopolitical landscape, continue to surge.
As governments around the world urge companies to raise their defenses, there is no better time than on World Backup Day to pose the question: is backup enough?
As organizations seek to move their business forward and safeguard critical data against today’s threats, solely relying on backup is no longer a sufficient strategy. Businesses must adopt a modern approach to data resiliency - one that is grounded in the cloud, positions teams to recover data rather than just trying to make a backup, stops ransomware attacks before they spread, and protects data and applications against emerging threats. This World Backup Day, instead of solemnly swearing to just back up your most important data - reevaluate your protection strategies and take the pledge of resiliency.”
“World Backup Day was created to help people be more aware of the significance that data plays in our everyday lives, and the importance of keeping it safe. Of course, we fully agree with this, and believe that robust and tested data recovery planning is a critical element of any data backup and protection plan.”
"Technological progress has led more and more companies to start using new technologies to increase their productivity or to facilitate their daily tasks. Their use has led to the massive collection of data and the need to have a place to store it securely has arisen. With cloud backup, company data and applications are protected by a server in a remote location. In this way, companies can have the capacity to save and preserve, at the same time, the data of their own corporation and that of their clients from anywhere, avoiding the loss of this data in the event of any technological failure or cyber-attack."
Sandeep Bhambure, Vice President, Veeam Software – India & SAARC
“According to Veeam Data Protection Report 2022, 84% of Indian organizations suffered ransomware attacks, making cyber-attacks one of the single biggest causes of downtime for the second consecutive year. The report also found that Indian organizations were unable to recover 36% of their lost data on average and 90% of organizations were unable to recover at least some of the data they had lost. Hence, it is essential that businesses have a comprehensive data backup plan in place to be fully prepared at the time of a data breach.
That’s not all! Only backing up may not protect your data from ransomware - it is equally important to ensure that the backup is well protected and securely stored. Organizations need to ensure their data protection capabilities keep pace with the demands of their business, to close the gap between how much data they can afford to lose after an outage versus how frequently data is backed up.”
“In today’s era of accelerated change and digital transformation, businesses in every sector need to do more with less. With businesses in India running workloads in a hybrid environment, it is critical to securely store data in multiple spaces like databases, file servers, and network-attached storage (NAS). While considering a solution that gives businesses the flexibility to access, upload, protect and analyse data, an asset that will have the advantage of long-term retention, reporting and insight into cloud storage use, will serve Indian organisations better.
According to the Dell Technologies APEX Backup Services study, 65% of IT decision-makers lack confidence that they will recover all systems or data to meet SLOs following a data loss. An as-a-Service model can be a redefining solution for businesses across where an enterprise solution provider manages their data needs while they focus on business growth. 25% of IT decision-makers indicate that database or data management workloads are a good fit for the as-a-Service model. This World Backup Day should be a welcome opportunity for businesses to reconsider their storage solutions and upgrade to safer cloud environments secured by cutting-edge data protection amenities, which will support their digital transformation journey.”
“Data is the new oil, said a sane soul. The only difference is that oil would run out in a few years. Data, on the other hand, keeps getting accumulated exponentially. With more than 50% of the world's population using smart-phones and digital devices, with new ones adding day by day, there are massive amounts of data created.
It's time we all woke up to the realities and compulsions of data protection at large. It's not just about data backup and restore methods, but it's also about freeing businesses from digital slavery. It is the capacity to decide what data should be stored, how it should be used or not used, and to make sure it doesn't make us enslaved by hardware and enchained by software. This World Backup day, businesses need to understand and commit to the importance of data backup and enjoying freedom of sharing data in a secure environment. It is high time the world moves from celebrating backup day to daily backup!”
Balaji Rao, Country Manager - India & SAARC, Mandiant
“In the recent past, organizations across the globe have experienced cyber security attacks that impacted their businesses through loss of revenue and brand reputation. To mitigate these risks, companies must develop disaster recovery and backup plans that will help them re-establish business promptly in the event of an attack. Last year, Mandiant released its M-Trends report that highlighted some of the processes that companies must keep in mind for effective backup and restoration as follows:
· Clear delineation of responsibility for managing and verifying data and application backups.
· Alignment of backup and restoration processes with business continuity and disaster recovery plans.
· Online and offline data backup retention policies, including initiation, frequency, verification and testing (for both on-premises and cloud-based data).
· Backup infrastructure that was segmented within the environment and only accessible using dedicated accounts for interfacing with and managing backup platforms and storage
According to the recent Mandiant predictions report, it was observed that the APJ region will witness an increase in breaches made public by attackers. Businesses have to re-imagine their network security and prioritize their critical data, application, and services. Security incidents require diligent preparation, rapid action and critical asset protection.”
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