According to one data protection report, sentiments about being able to recover from a ransomware attack have not been positive …

Organizations are facing several data protection challenges driven by the constant threat of ransomware and the consumption of emerging technologies such as cloud-native applications, Kubernetes containers and AI.  

According to a recent IDC survey, more than one-third of organizations worldwide have experienced a ransomware attack or breach that blocked access to systems or data in the previous 12 months.

Also, according to the Dell Technologies 2021 Global Data Protection Index (GDPI) survey of 1,000 global IT decision makers (February to April 202) of which 250 are from APJ (Australia, India, Japan, Singapore, and South Korea), organizations are combatting continued data growth and increased data protection complexities.

Here are some of the findings that apply to the respondents:

• Globally, respondents were managing more than 10 times the amount of data than they did five years ago – from 1.45 petabytes in 2016 to 14.6 petabytes in 2021.
• 72% of APJ respondents (Global: 82%) were concerned their organization’s existing data protection solutions cannot meet all future business challenges.
• 38% of APJ respondents (Global: 33%) reported data loss in the last year. Also, 42% of APJ respondents (Global: 45%) experienced unplanned system downtime.
• 68% of APJ (Global: 62%) respondents were concerned their existing data protection measures may not be sufficient to cope with malware and ransomware threats, while 72% of APJ (Global: 74%) ‘agreed’ they had increased exposure to data loss from cyber threats with the growth of employees working from home.
• 67% of APJ (Global: 67%) respondents lacked confidence that all their business-critical data can be recovered in the event of a destructive cyberattack or data loss.
• 64% of APJ (Global: 63%) respondents believed emerging technologies such as cloud-native applications, Kubernetes containers, AI and ML pose a risk to data protection, and the lack of data protection solutions for newer technologies was one of the top three data protection challenges for organizations.
• On average, the cost of data loss in the last 12 months was approaching four times higher for respondents using multiple data protection vendors as compared to those using a single-vendor approach.

Said Lucas Salter, GM (Data Protection Solutions), Dell Technologies Asia Pacific & Japan: “Our 2021 GDPI findings indicate that over two-thirds of the respondents from APJ are concerned that their organizations’ existing data protection measures may not be sufficient to cope with malware and ransomware threats. In this age of increasing cyber threats, we understand that the stakes have never been higher and protecting data has never been more complex.”

The report asserted that organizations can deal with this trend by taking concrete steps to boost preparedness to such events; leveraging robust data protection frameworks; protecting data in multi-cloud and virtualized workloads; considering ‘as-a-Service’ solutions to simplify data protection efforts; and minimizing vendor crawl (relying on too many vendors) to prevent unnecessary complexity and risk.

While enterprises may be tempted to expand their data protection capabilities by leveraging multiple solutions from several providers, the research indicates that consolidating their solutions with one vendor will likely provide better protection against data loss and downtime.