As technology advances and our lives eventually have been programmed, the value of our data has also increased. That has increased the need to spread awareness among the individuals as well as organisations, to take proactive measures to safeguard the data and prevent the loss of important information due to hardware failure, cyberattacks, or other unforeseen events.
Thus keeping a backup of our data has become essential. And to remind us about the importance of the same, March 31 is being observed as World Backup Day.
Below are some quotes from the industry leaders:
Spokesperson: Mr. Raj Sivaraju, President, APAC, Arete
“The IT sector worldwide and all other businesses are concerned about the current data due to the continuous improvements in cyber threat methods. Today’s businesses are based on data, and securing that foundation requires ongoing protection. Businesses must acknowledge the crucial significance of continual data protection for organisations of all sizes on World Backup Day in 2023. According to a report by CERT-In, India witnessed 13.91 lakh cybersecurity incidents in 2022. Breaches can happen at any time; without a reliable backup plan, these incidents might have unforeseen consequences. Data protection strategies must address requirements both before and after a cyber incident to be effective. Building resilience and durability into a recovery plan is extremely easy using a multi-tier data protection and backup structure. Ongoing data protection helps organisations recover rapidly from unanticipated events, minimising delay and preventing the loss of vital information.”
Spokesperson Mr. Priya Ranjan Panigrahy, Founder and CEO, Ceptes
If we are dedicating one entire day to data backup, then it must have some real importance. With the rapidly evolving role of data in business & the role data plays in business success, it has become very important to protect it to maintain seamless business continuity & drive higher business resiliency.
With the increasing amount of data being generated & stored, the best way to backup data is to have a cloud data backup application that can manage a sheer volume of data with ease. A few of the things to consider are the backup data location, owning 100% control & 24/7 accessibility to the backup data.
Out of many one of the most common misconceptions that people have about data backup is, they think it is not their responsibility rather it is the duty of the app or platform they are using to protect their data. But in reality, it is your data, so you need to protect it by yourself.
You need to understand that backing up data means providing insurance to your critical data which it deserves. Businesses run on data & data needs to be protected. Beyond backing up, organisations need to have a clear long-term data management strategy in place to collect, store, use, and protect business data. To mitigate the risk of data loss, you need to build a data protection culture within your organisation, have encryption enabled, and build security policies.
Spokesperson: Dr. Sanjay Katkar, Joint MD & CTO, Quick Heal Technologies
Continuous Data Protection (CDP) offers real-time or near-real-time backup and recovery of data, providing continuous protection against data loss or corruption. CDP captures every change made to the data and stores it in a separate location, ensuring businesses have access to the most up-to-date version of their data in case of data loss or corruption. CDP also offers faster recovery times and a higher level of data integrity by capturing every change made to the data.
Implementing a clear and comprehensive data backup policy that outlines the frequency of backups, the types of data to be backed up, and the storage location is essential. Regular testing of backups should also be conducted to ensure they are working correctly and can be used to recover data in case of data loss or corruption. Additionally, businesses must comply with data privacy regulations such as GDPR and CCPA to protect PII data adequately.
In summary, data backup and recovery are critical for businesses, but data privacy is just as crucial. With CDP and a clear backup policy, businesses can protect their data against threats and ensure business continuity in case of disruptions. By training employees and complying with data privacy regulations, businesses can safeguard PII data and avoid legal consequences.
Spokesperson: Manikandan Thangaraj, vice president, ManageEngine
“Disaster recovery and data protection will play a crucial role in 2023. With ransomware attacks constantly garnering headlines, organisations should get used to the fact that it is impossible to prevent ransomware attacks entirely. It’s a question of when their operations will be affected by ransomware, not if. Moreover, with the rise of Ransomware as a Service (RaaS) over the past couple of years, global ransomware damage costs are predicted to exceed USD 265 billion by 2031.
The only way in which organisations can withstand the threat of ransomware is by investing in disaster recovery solutions. Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) has been on the rise for
the past few years and its market size is predicted to reach USD 41.26 billion by 2030. The
winner of the battle between the backup service providers and threat actors who leverage
ransomware will be determined by how quickly DRaaS providers can react to potential new
threats. Organisations should prefer solutions built on the Zero Trust security model to ensure data security. When it comes to data backup and recovery, using a Zero Trust strategy will boost your data security because you’ll be authenticating both the user and the device initiating the backup. Of course, achieving Zero Trust is a long and challenging journey, but it is a must for organisations that care about data security. Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) is anticipated to increase by 31% in 2023 according to Gartner, making it the fastest-growing area of network security.
Another recommended strategy to meet today’s evolving threats is to implement the 3-2-1-1 backup rule—which is an update to the popular 3-2-1 rule with the extra covering immutable storage. Immutability will restore your data to its original, unaltered state and get you back in operation within minutes of a breach, so you can be sure that you can recover your data even after a successful attack.”
Spokesperson: Ramanujam Komanduri, Country Manager, Pure Storage India
“Data loss is a silent killer that strikes individuals and businesses without warning. It can happen due to hardware failure, cyber-attacks, or natural disasters, and the consequences can be catastrophic. The financial and emotional toll of data loss is immeasurable, and it can leave a lasting impact on your life and your business. That is why data backup and recovery should be a top priority for everyone.
As we approach World Backup Day on March 31st, it’s important to remember that data loss is a possibility. So, take a moment to reflect on your data backup strategy and ask yourself, “Is it enough?” With the constantly evolving threat environment, traditional prevention measures are no longer sufficient. You need to invest not only in a solid backup approach but also in a multitier data protection architecture that ensures resilience, durability, and more importantly restoration so your business is always on.
This World Backup Day, let’s commit to protecting our valuable data and building a meaningful recovery strategy. Remember, data backup and recovery is not an afterthought – it’s a critical component of any IT infrastructure.”
Spokesperson: Balaji Rao, Area Vice President, India & SAARC, Commvault
“With the ubiquitous data taking precedence over today’s modernised digital generation, it is imperative for every organisation to holistically safeguard their prized possession. 2022 surfaced as a hotbed of ransomware incidents in India, with attacks ranging from encryption, data theft, distributed denial of service (DDoS), harassment, and many more. Moreover, close to 49% of Indian enterprises cited malicious attacks damaging their backup and data recovery, according to the recent Commvault-IDC study. This threat landscape will only continue to further evolve with attacks becoming more aggressive in terms of sophistication and reach.
Data resiliency is plagued by data breaches and becoming a norm in the dynamic business landscape, hence the question now lies in how organizations respond to a particular incident and how quickly they recover from it. As businesses get addicted to modernization of technological capabilities across environments, data resiliency through a comprehensive backup and recovery for hybrid and multi-cloud becomes non-negotiable. To have the highest chance of protection, IT departments must implement enhanced multi-cloud and ransomware protection. It’s that extra element that can take a company’s data from vulnerable to secure. Organisations must also explore the realms of Zero Trust strategy which isn’t just one component like threat detection or recoverability, but a range of technologies working together to create a comprehensive security solution.
This World Backup Day, thus, serves as an annual but timely reminder for businesses to revisit and upgrade their data backup and recovery solutions to ensure the restoration of business operations during a crisis/disaster and be prepared for an unexpected incident. Enterprises must rise to the data guardianship challenge and ensure the data model provides secure, ubiquitous, real-time access to services and data. Data recovery can no longer be a siloed activity. Businesses looking to be relevant will need to understand the role data plays in their organization and to roll out data protection capabilities including data backup speedily to ensure they can thrive in their own Datasphere.”
Spokesperson: Aseem Rastogi, CISO, Meesho
Backup is arguable, one of the most underappreciated security controls. Having a robust & resilient backup goes a long way in recovering from security incidents & business disruptions.
Spokesperson: Sandeep Bhambur Vice President and Managing Director, India & SAARC, Veeam Software, and Rick Vanover, Senior Director of Product Strategy at Veeam
“Businesses today face a wide range of uncertainties, from pandemics to cyberattacks to natural disasters. Because of their increased reliance on technology, businesses are becoming more vulnerable to cyber-attacks, losing data, and experiencing business disruptions. According to a recent report by Think Teal and Veeam on ‘State of Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery in India – 2023’, around 18% of the businesses in India lost data due to downtime, and more than 20% of the downtime caused has resulted in a financial loss of more than $1 million per hour. Downtime cost Indian businesses 73% of their money, 64% of their data, 55% of their customers, 41% of their value chain, 44% of their brand image, and 52% of their employee productivity. The cost of downtime is far greater than just monetary or data loss.
The metrics that define a business’s success or failure have evolved over time. Businesses today are more concerned with their market reputation, brand image, customer loyalty, and a variety of other factors. Running a business with constant disruptions and frequent downtime can have a greater impact on overall success than monetary losses. To avoid such damage, businesses must go above and beyond to ensure they have a solid data backup strategy in place, as well as a strong Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery plan that mitigates business risks and minimizes downtime. On this World Backup Day 2023, we would advise businesses to take a more pragmatic approach towards data backup and implement the 3-2-1 Rule and refresh it with the 2 non-production copies to *both* be ultra-resilient media types- that include technologies that are air-gapped, offline, immutable or require 4-eyes recovery.”
