As detailed by Gary Chapman in his 1992 book The Five Love Languages, there are five different ways partners can express and experience their care for one another. These include acts of service, gift-giving, physical touch, quality time and words of affirmation. Although at Druva, we think there’s an important one missing from the list: data protection.
Data protection is something organizations need to care about all year round, not just on Valentine’s Day.
As we saw all too often in 2020, without proper love, care and regular attention, data is being left open and vulnerable to attacks, especially as it migrates to the cloud. Cyber-criminals are getting bolder and more aggressive by the day, attacking world-leading tech companies like Twitter, to vital global NGOs like the World Health Organization. This means identifying and deploying the right solutions is essential to ensure business continuity and maintaining corporate reputation.
A Relationship That’s Worth the Hassle
They say relationships can be a lot like car boot sales. From a distance they look like fun, but when you get close up you realize it’s a hassle you don’t need. This is the opposite of a strong cloud data management and protection partnership; while it might not sound that alluring, it is absolutely essential.
In fact, the competitive advantages of taking a rigorous approach to your organization’s data management – particularly when moving securely to the cloud – are more significant than ever. This is especially true as many of us will be operating in a hybrid digital work and office-based environment for the foreseeable future.
According to more than 700 senior IT decision-makers Druva surveyed in the UK and the US, a proper data management approach drives economies of scale, improves collaboration, lowers costs and enhances the usability of data. In fact, 79% of IT leaders see data management and protection as a competitive advantage, and 73% are more heavily reliant on data for making important business decisions. What’s more, 33% of respondents believe the value of data has permanently increased since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This goes to show exactly why relationships with third-party partners that can check up on your data security and ensure regular backups are so critical.
Gaps in Sensitive Places?
One issue companies are often not aware of is that relying on just one tool or solution, whether it’s Microsoft 365, OneDrive or SharePoint, can leave them with data protection gaps they might not have even considered.
Many businesses assume their data is safe because it’s in the cloud. Yet, without an additional backup solution meeting the basic requirements for regular, automated and repeated backups, it can be difficult to meet data retention, business continuity and GDPR compliance standards.
Being able to check your recycle bin if and when a file disappears is not what we call a business-class backup strategy in the event of a ransomware attack. Often, the protection provided by these platforms is in the form of perimeter defenses, designed to stop your systems being penetrated. However, this is still not enough to prevent hackers from inflicting damage and switching off backups, if they manage to get inside your network.
The Perfect, Harmonious Partnership
What can you do to create a dream relationship that combines the brilliant suite of business productivity software with the modern data protection your organization needs?
Above all else, we recommend deploying a third-party backup solution that provides the following:
- 3-2-1 security compliance: In other words, three versions of your data on two media in at least one remote backup
- Total cost of ownership (TCO) reduction: Your data footprint is increasing, so you need a cost effective solution that will scale with your business needs without breaking the bank
- Anomaly alerting: Notifications will appear if a malware attack starts to rename, delete, encrypt or change the status of your files on masse
- eDiscovery enablement: This will give your company’s legal team timely and easy access to current and historical enterprise data, which will ensure efficiency throughout litigation processes
- Simple recovery: End users and administrators can quickly and easily restore files regardless of their age or when they were last accessed, on the device of their choice
If this sounds like a solution you’d like to match with more often, this Valentine’s Day may just be the perfect time to enlist the help of a new data protection partner. With a top-notch plan in place, you can rest easy knowing that your data is protected and always available.