Why data backup is an essential business practice

They’ve been battling with the challenge for years, yet many corporate IT teams are still struggling to meet basic service level agreements for data availability and access, and it’s 2021.

Organisations also face challenges in the form of regulatory compliance requirements, how to optimise storage costs, preventing disruption from ransomware and other cyber attacks, and finding ways to mine the data for useful insights.

This makes data availability much more than an IT issue – it’s a serious inhibitor to digital business success. So, what happened?

Surely, every organisation knows the importance of data protection, right? Wrong. Unfortunately, the evidence would suggest not. The daily task of protecting, storing, identifying and provisioning an organisation’s data – arguably its most valuable business asset – remains, for many, a ridiculously complex, inefficient and expensive chore.

Recently some high-profile ransomware attacks brought large companies to their knees when vital data was encrypted and made unavailable. Early in 2021, food processing company JBS Foods was forced to halt production at some facilities, while transportation company Toll Group suffered several disruptive attacks in 2020 that made its data unavailable and crippled the business for weeks. As experts have stated when it comes to ransomware attacks, it’s hard to believe that there is no protection, no backup and no policies that would prevent these kinds of incidents taking place. However, research shows organisations may be found wanting when it comes to backup, their recovery strategy and policies, and protection – with as much as 57 per cent of organisations not very confident in their ability to recover from a major data-loss event. That’s an oversight that needs to be corrected.

To some degree, legacy vendors in the data protection sector are to blame. There has been almost no fundamental innovation from them in 25 years. From the outset, their approach has been to produce specialist tools optimised for a single function, such as backup, file services or disaster recovery, that are deployed in silos that don’t interoperate.

And while a wave of newer entrants, including Cohesity, brought SaaS-based versions of these tools to market, they didn’t address the mass data fragmentation issue that added dozens more single-purpose "service silos" to the mix.

Raising the profile of data backups among business

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In the context of a fast-changing economic and technological environment, data backup matters now more than ever before. If your business accidentally deletes files, or if errant outsiders get hold of your information, you need to know that your data is safe, secure and ready for retrieval.

So, what does a successful approach to backup look like, and how can your organisation benefit from having a reliable and effective approach to data backup? Here are four reasons why effective data backups are essential:

1. Ensures your business is ready for the worst to happen

Ransomware isn’t just a problem – it’s quickly becoming a nightmare for businesses and the IT professionals charged with protecting their organisation’s data.

Recent high-profile attacks – such as those affecting the US-based Colonial Pipeline, food-processing company JBS and Australian transportation company Toll Group – show that the ransomware problem is likely to get worse before it gets better. Cybersecurity Ventures estimates ransomware will cost the world approximately $20 billion this year, which is 57 times more than it cost in 2015.

The rise of the Internet of Things is leading to a huge rise in connected devices that could be susceptible to attack. Cybersecurity Ventures predicts the global damage from ransomware could reach US$265 billion annually by 2031.

In addition to strong defence tools, like firewalls and two-factor authentication, organisations must invest in modern backup solutions. Then, if the worst happens, you can retrieve your business and get up and run quickly, without letting down your customers or paying a ransom to hackers.

2. Create a supportive platform for hybrid work

The cloud is now very much a business-as-normal activity. COVID-19 accelerated global spending on public cloud services and the sector, with Gartner forecasting growth of 23.1 per cent in 2021 to total $332.3 billion, up from US$270 billion in 2020.

The analyst firm says heavy use of on-demand IT, heightened concerns over ransomware and complexities associated with data management are forcing CIOs to explore alternative backup solutions – and the cloud is playing a crucial role here, too.

Businesses can improve their backup processes by using an as-a-Service approach to either complement existing on-premises backup, or in its own right. While some businesses are still working out if the cloud is right for them, many others use multiple cloud-based solutions and as such your business can use the cloud to protect its crown jewels – and recover data quickly and effectively when it needs to.

A cloud-native solution backs up data and applications in the cloud and on-premises, with all the big benefits of scalability, flexibility and efficiency that on-demand IT brings. Whether you’re working on-premises or in the public cloud, an as-a-Service approach is a great fit for the hybrid future of work, no matter what happens next.

3. Benefits of effective data management

Backup isn’t just about giving your business a security blanket. Yes, it’s great to know you have support when things don’t turn out as expected, but your backup strategy should also help you to create a much more effective approach to data management. Backup done right has real return on investment (ROI) capabilities.

CIOs and their line-of-business peers continue to be swamped by data. Spending on big data analytics is set to grow four and a half times by 2025, according to analyst Frost & Sullivan. Such spending shows your business will be increasingly reliant on making the most of the information it holds, so data management has never been more critical.

That’s where backup can help. While the backup service you use needs to be simple, the benefits it brings to your business must be broad. Look for a service with an easy-to-use interface that allows employees to manage data simply, regardless of its location.

Your backup solution should include data management tools as standard, which let your employees search information and then run applications directly on data, so that they can generate the game-changing insight your company needs.

4. Deliver increased value through innovation

There’s no justification for not investing in data backup, as the impact of downtime on the bottom line could be catastrophic. But despite this potential for disaster, some companies are still slow to make the right commitment to backup, according to the Enterprise Strategy Group.

One explanation is complacency: if your business hasn’t been hit by hackers, or your services have run effectively for a long period of time, you might think investing in backup is an unnecessary expense. Rather than spending cash on an insurance policy, some managers would rather direct funds to other areas of the business.

However, investing in data backup isn’t a choice. More than just being an insurance policy, data backup should be the foundation for business growth. If your business relies on data – and as Harvard Business Review recognises, every organisation does – then it needs to be safe.

If your data is backed up, you have the built-in security of knowing you can make creative decisions – such as in test and development – without putting your organisation at risk. Look for a backup provider with a strong ecosystem of supporting apps that allows you to do much more, whether it’s running reports, producing analytics or establishing compliance.

It’s time for Next-Gen

We believe the legacy data management industry has failed to deliver the solutions needed by today’s digital businesses, and in some way, that hasn’t helped make backup become the business essential that it absolutely should be. IT is in an increasingly untenable position given relentless data growth, flat to lower budgets, and pressure to deliver more business value.

Incremental improvements won’t cut it. Instead, IT needs a modern approach: a simpler, more secure and smarter way to take back control of their data across a dynamic multicloud landscape with minimal IT effort, which can also help unlock latent value for competitive advantage.

The good news is that such a solution is widely available today and is already being used by thousands of organisations worldwide to save money, reduce risk and be more competitive. We invite you to explore what next-gen data management can do for your business.

Derek Cowan is the director of system engineering APAC at Cohesity.