Backup Day puts the focus on data protection

Backup has always been an area of solid channel play, so the opportunity to talk about it to customers about the technology is a welcome one.

The loss of access to data is so damaging that 76% of organisations would not survive more than three days of downtime, according to research from Veeam Software, which was revealed to coincide with World Backup Day.

Although large numbers of customers expect a breach, often in the form of a ransomware attack, there continue to be significant numbers that admit they not be able to restore operations quickly.

“In today’s AI-powered world, trust in data is every organisation’s most valuable asset. Backups are the last line of truth in a world where AI can fabricate, ransomware can encrypt and a single misconfiguration can cascade across an entire infrastructure in minutes,” said Dave Russell, senior vice-president and head of strategy at Veeam.

“World Backup Day is a timely call to action for boards and IT leaders to ensure data resilience and comprehensive backup strategies are in place. In the AI era, it’s not just about recovering your data – it’s about keeping your business functioning and thriving with the trusted data it needs. Too many organisations are still managing risk reactively, when real innovation – and real trust – begin with a foundation of resilient, secure data.”

Others across the industry echoed the need for the channel to work closely with customers to improve backup policies, with Roy Shelton, group CEO of managed service provider (MSP) Connectus Business Solutions, warning that some customers were unaware of the risks posed by leaving their data exposed without backup and restore policies in place.

“You may well make some surprising discoveries if you look at how important business records, documents and multimedia files are backed up,” he said. “You may find that you are at risk of hardware failure if you are backing up to old equipment. You may even find that existing backup processes are not working as they should be due to human error.

“Too often, a click on a link in an email can lead to disaster for a business. Managers can use World Backup Day to remind staff to be cautious about data security and to encourage suggestions for improvement.”

The arrival of World Backup Day comes at a time when the need to have solid data policies is more crucial than ever, given the expansion of AI and the deployment by many customers of AI agents across the network.

Bastien Aerni, vice-president of strategy and technology at GTT, said the impact of AI and the spread of agents is having an impact on how backup is implemented: “The rise of AI agents is changing how organisations view and manage backup and recovery. Intelligent systems can help to automate routine resilience tasks – monitoring data integrity, detecting anomalies and triggering recovery workflows – faster than manual processes.

He added that backup sparked opportunities across the channel well beyond just generating business for storage specialists: “People often think of backup as a storage problem, but it’s equally a networking challenge. Every backup, replication or recovery process depends on moving large volumes of data securely and reliably between locations.

“As enterprises scale across regions and cloud providers, resilient network infrastructure becomes fundamental to protecting and restoring critical information. World Backup Day highlights how important it is for organisations to look at resilience holistically, from data protection policies to the connectivity that makes recovery possible.”

Eric Schott, CPO at Object First, also agreed that in the era of AI, this year’s World Backup Day is a timely opportunity to get in front of customers and talk about protecting data: “Each year, World Backup Day serves as a reminder for consumers to save and back up their important data. But for businesses, it’s a call to be prepared and act as AI-powered ransomware threats become more sophisticated.

“The loss of backup data leads to operational downtime, which can cost businesses substantially in lost revenue and reputational damage, not to mention if a ransom is required to recover their data.”