World Backup Day 2022: Setting it but not forgetting it

Each year, March 31 is designated as World Backup Day, which reminds all of us that we need to back up all our personal and business-related documents, photos, videos — anything digital that we value.

Those of us who have lost important files in the past know what a pain it is — and how much valuable time it takes — to recreate them or make new copies, if that indeed is possible. Thinking ahead and taking the time and attention needed to ensure the protection of data valuables is well worth it and doesn't cost that much.

There's really no excuse anymore not to do this: Automated backup into the cloud or to onsite storage is simple to set up and inexpensive. And there are so many vendors willing to bend over backward for your business that you shouldn't have any problem finding one that fits your needs exactly.

With 60 million computers estimated to fail this year, the time is now to fully embrace the meaning behind World Backup Day, a holiday reminding everyone to take control of data backup plans.

Following are some words of advice from professionals who think about backup and data protection all the time.

Kris Schulze, Director of Product Marketing at Scale Computing: An annual reminder to back up your data, systems, and applications is no longer sufficient. It's not like swapping new batteries into a smoke alarm once per year; we're all vulnerable. Imagine a cyberattack claiming all of your records on March 30 and only having a backup from a year ago. What if your backup has been compromised? Or lost because the equipment was replaced? World Backup Day should be celebrated 365 days per year.

Thomas LaRock, Head Geek, SolarWinds: With increasing ransomware and cyber-attacks, a robust database backup strategy is non-negotiable. World Backup Day serves as an opportunity for business and database leaders to think critically about their organization's backup strategy and ensure they are employing the best practices. Consider where you store your data in the cloud, on-premises, or across other systems — because location can have a major impact on cost and the overall effectiveness of your recovery process.

Adrian Moir, Technology Evangelist and Principal Engineer, Quest Software: Recovering data from a backup after a ransomware attack is the cure to the problem, but prevention will always be better than a cure. Data must be secured from both a data and an access point of view, which can be done through MFA, obfuscating data sets, encryption of data sets, immutable data, and more. With plenty of solution options out there, organizations should choose to provide the level of immutability and access control needed to proactively stop ransomware attacks before they happen.

W. Curtis Preston, Chief Technical Evangelist, Druva: As organizations seek to move their business forward and safeguard critical data against today's threats, solely relying on backup is no longer a sufficient strategy. Businesses must adopt a modern approach to data resiliency — one that is grounded in the cloud, positions teams to recover data rather than just trying to make a backup, stops ransomware attacks before they spread, and protects data and applications against emerging threats. This World Backup Day, instead of solemnly swearing to just back up your most important data – reevaluate your protection strategies and take the pledge of resiliency.

Steve Petryschuk, Product Strategy Director at Auvik: This year on March 31, I want everyone to join me in solemnly swearing (but in family-friendly language!) to back up our important documents and precious memories. But, before we do, here are some helpful tips to reference during the process:

• Tip #1: Automate your backups. Don't spend your precious time manually backing up your workstations and network devices. 

• Tip #2:  Check regularly to make sure your automated backups are running regularly. 

• Tip #3:  Make an off-site copy of your backup. That could be to the cloud, or to another physical location. You just don't want all your data in one location. 

• Tip #4: Test your backups. You don't want to find out your backups are corrupted when you're in need of them. Test restoring them often to ensure you have a solid recovery plan.

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• Tip #5: Make sure you're backing up as much as you can. We often think about workstations and servers to back up, but don't forget about other data types, such as data hosted in your cloud services. 

Ian McShane, VP, Strategy, Arctic Wolf: So it's cool that you backed up your systems and you stored your critical data offline somewhere, but when was the last time you actually restored something from bare metal? If you're not regularly testing and validating the integrity of the back-ups, you're living dangerously.

Do you know how long it takes to bring a server, a system, or an entire site back online? Remember what works for someone else isn't the same benchmark for you. I am aware that this is time-consuming and a pain – it's often out of hours and there are always more important things to do. However, incident response is not just about stopping adversaries and preventing malware; incident response includes the recovery phase.

If you have confidence in data integrity, and confidence and experience in the process to bring something back, not only will your incident response be smoother and predictable, you'll sleep better, too.

Eddy Farrat, Senior Director, Product Management, OpenText Security Solutions: Here are three tips for those looking to strengthen backup and data protection policies in 2022:

• Don't confuse cloud storage and cloud backup. Cloud storage supplements existing hard drive space and requires manual selection of the files an organization wants to store in the cloud. There are security risks involved; it doesn't include data integrity checks, and the data in transit is not necessarily encrypted. Cloud storage also lacks file versioning and point-in-time restore. Cloud backup service, on the other hand, lets organizations restore files in the event of data loss, automatically saves and syncs files on designated devices to the cloud, and often includes private-key encryption.

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• Know your data. Learn what data your business cannot function without. Identifying mission-critical data allows businesses to prioritize backup tasks based on desired recovery options. Take the time to learn what data is part of a critical application and how it impacts business operations and/or revenue. Consider whether the data needs to be archived, whether it lives in a legacy system or if it is subject to regulatory frameworks. Backup plans should account for all data and storage a business has, from cloud to local, including archived data.

• Determine whether backup and disaster recovery solutions are best kept on-premises or in the cloud. With the shift to remote work, many businesses and IT organizations have accelerated their cloud adoption. However, many IT decision-makers still rely heavily on traditional on-premises infrastructure to support business operations. This is especially important if organizations have stringent recovery time objectives (RTOs) or if they want to keep a central repository of data. Regularly reviewing data policies and procedures is highly recommended. 

Lee Caswell, SVP of Nutanix:

• It's not a matter of “if” but “when” your organization will experience an outage or data security breach. It's essential that businesses make their backup and recovery solution a strategic advantage instead of a liability to minimize service interruptions. Unplanned outages can result in losses of over $9,000 per minute, loss of productivity and damage to a business brand.

• Many businesses find themselves purchasing cyber liability insurance following a loss because suddenly the risk has been realized. Adopt a proactive cyber risk mindset and ensure you have protections in place, like insurance policies, that will help minimize the fallout from cyber-attacks. 

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• Just because you operate in the public cloud, don't assume that your applications and data are backed up or easily recoverable. Businesses need to conduct an audit to know exactly what's backed up, how often it is saved and where they can access the backup when needed.

• Businesses should confirm that their backup and disaster recovery systems provide efficient snapshot, cloning and replication capabilities and have the ability for further customization to meet their specific needs.

Raghu Kulkarni, IDrive CEO: Over the past few years, the need for affordable and secure cloud backup has grown exponentially. With more people working from home, the release of 5G, along with advancements in phones, data is being generated more than ever before, and it's important to protect that data from personal family photos to critical business data. Cloud backup is an essential part of everyday business along with everyday living now, and consumers & businesses need to have it.

Deepak Mohan, EVP at Veritas: World Backup Day 2022 is a powerful reminder that there has never been a more critical time for all organizations to prioritize robust data protection practices. Leaders must work with their IT teams to take the necessary steps now to implement the right tools and protocols that can autonomously self-provision, self-optimize and self-heal data management services to keep their critical data safe and available no matter where it is — from edge to core to cloud.