The digital world is more fragile than many businesses like to admit. Despite escalating cyber threats, stricter regulatory requirements and increased reliance on digital infrastructure, too many organisations still underestimate the risk of data loss.
World Backup Day is a reminder of how important it is to have robust back up strategies.With reputation and huge financial loss on the line for organisations, it’s crucial that they have effective backups and are able to recover data quickly and efficiently.
In recent years, data storage has transformed. Cyber-attacks have become even more invasive, meaning simple backup copies are not sufficient anymore, because they too could be at risk.
“The role of backups has always been simple in principle: if something goes wrong, restore the data and move on,” explains Mark Molyneux, Field CTO at Commvault. “But the cyber threat landscape has changed dramatically in recent years, and with it the role data protection technologies must play in resilience strategies.”
“Today’s attackers often spend months inside corporate networks before launching an attack, quietly corrupting systems and data along the way. By the time the attack becomes visible, organisations may find that backups have been compromised as well, leaving them unsure which data can actually be trusted and in many cases, unable to access backups at all.”
Stephan Badesha, CISO at Node4 agrees that simple backups are no longer effective.“Backups have long been a foundation of effective cyber resilience strategies,” he outlines. “They provide a vital safety net, ensuring organisations can recover swiftly from disruptions while minimising downtime and reputational damage. However, effective backups require more than just copying data. Cybercriminals, particularly ransomware groups, frequentlytarget backup systems to prevent recovery or reintroduce compromised data during restoration.”
With it clear that simple is no longer a solution, Terry Storrar, Managing Director at Leaseweb UK argues that organisations should implement systems with multiple backups to reduce risk. “Robust backup strategies remain a critical part of modern cloud architecture” he says. “It is very common for organisations to adopt layered approaches combining secure cloud-based backups with immutable storage and offline copies. Integrating a combination of different security measures means that even if production environments are disrupted, data can be restored quickly with minimal downtime and impact on operations.”
But it’s not just about where the data is stored. Mark Christie, Senior Director of Technical Services at StorMagic highlights how important it is to minimise downtime. “For organisations running multiple sites or operating in environments with limited connectivity, the question is no longer just where data is backed up, but how quickly systems can be brought back online locally,” he argues.
“As a result, more teams are looking at backup and recovery together rather than as separate processes. That includes keeping recent copies of data closer to where it’s used, validatingrecovery workflows across sites, and making sure critical applications can continue running even if the primary environment is unavailable.”
And with the development of AI and its fast-processing speed, the need for faster recovery is even more vital. “The need for this kind of resilience becomes even greater with increased AI adoption” explains Leaseweb’s Storrar. “With AI workloads relying on vast volumes of both training and operational data, often stored across distributed infrastructure environments, losing or compromising this data can have major consequences – both operationally and financially.”
Node4’s Badesha concludes that: “Ultimately, a backup strategy is only as strong as its ability to perform under pressure.”
And whilst speed is important for recovery, it’s also vital that businesses ensure that the integrity and safety of records is maintained before restoration.
Commvault’s Molyneux explains how companies can exercise clean restorative practices: “Organisations increasingly need to think in terms of clean recovery – the ability to identifytrusted data, isolate compromised environments, and restore systems in a way that prevents reinfection. They must also be regularly tested to verify that they are viable backups without error.”
“Verified, clean recovery from uncompromised backups is essential,” agrees Badesha. “Achieving this is complex and requires continuous oversight and specialist expertise that in-house teams may not always have the capacity to provide. As a result, many organisations turn to managed service providers (MSPs) to deploy and manage their backup solutions. These services are often complemented by security operations centres (SOCs), which provide continuous threat monitoring and incident response across IT environments, including backup infrastructure.”
Molyneux concludes: “That’s why World Backup Day should not be seen purely as a reminder to keep copies of data, but as a reminder to ensure those copies are clean, validated, and ready for recovery. Simply restoring data without verifying its integrity risks reintroducing the same threats that caused the incident in the first place.”
