A robust data protection protocol is critical for all organizations, and will particularly be the case as we move beyond Covid-19 into the next normal. In a recent conversation with CXOToday, Caddy Tan, Vice President Sales, APAC, Arcserve, explains why a strong data protection posture will remain vital post-pandemic.
How do you see the industry taking up data protection around the world?
Data protection is undergoing significant growth in its importance, driven by the onslaught of ransomware. Just a few years ago, data protection and disaster recovery (DR) were often afterthoughts, secondary projects – necessary, but not critical. Fast forward to 2021, DR and data protection is a mission-critical infrastructure fighting on the front lines of the ransomware war.
Do you think the COVID-19 has given any impetus to the industry in terms of data protection and backup?
Absolutely! COVID-19 has changed how the world runs – and one of the fundamental changes is the extreme rise in the number of remote employees. Overnight, the companies went from having one or two data centers, to facing hundreds of “micro-data-centers” – home networks of employees, containing critical data on the work laptops, yet not as secure as the office environments. And they certainly did not have the necessary data protection mechanism or policies in-place to keep up with corporate requirements and government regulations. Companies scrambled to implement backups – not an easy proposition without physical access to those sites. This pushed the solutions delivering backups without any hardware onsite to new heights.
Why do we see that people are less aware about data protection as much as they are about cybersecurity?
Cyber security’s prioritization is linked to the perception of immediate protection, as opposed to recovery – which is perceived as complicated and tedious. Like in a person’s health – both gyms and hospitals are essential for survival. But people tend to like gyms more than hospitals.
Arcserve has recently launched the Multi-Petabyte Appliances. Can you tell us a bit more about it in the context of data protection.
In December 2020, we launched Arcserve X Series Appliances Secured by Sophos. These are the first self-contained solutions with integrated cyber and data protection for enterprise data volumes. The new appliances combine deep learning endpoint protection and on- and off-site disaster recovery with over 3PBs of effective capacity in one unit, and linear expansion to increase capacity as needed.
Where do you think the situation with ransomware is going in the coming months and year?
Given the trends we are observing, the ransomware pandemic is only going to grow. According to Sophos , the average ransom has grown to $233,817, almost 3x in just one year. Multi-million dollar demands are now commonplace. The only way companies can avoid paying the ransom is by implementing multi-modal ransomware prevention strategies, comprising advanced cybersecurity, orchestrated recovery, roles, and processes that ensure that nothing can get through.
What according to you will be the future of data protection?
Data protection’s importance will continue to grow. With new technologies, like containers, edge, NoSQL, and others gaining popularity, critical organization data will be stored in more places. Each of them must be protected from loss, corruption, and ransomware. In short, the future for data protection is bright.
