The World Backup Day celebration is an annual reminder of backing up irreplaceable and important digital information. Observed each year on March 31st, this year’s theme, “Save Digital Memories”, highlights the responsibility of preserving digital assets.
Losing files is more common than we think, posits an article in World Backup Day. Statistics show that accidents cause 29% of data loss but 21 % of people have never made a backup.
Backup before generative AI
Matthew Hardman, the CTO of APAC at Hitachi Vantara recalled backup processes were heavily reliant on the manual intervention of IT teams pre-generative AI (GenAI) era.
“This meant “point-in-time” backups quickly became outdated due to rapid data generation. Moreover, in enterprise IT, not all data should be backed up in the same way. Backup strategies must consider factors such as importance, sensitivity, and regulatory requirements associated with different data types,” he said.
He shared it was challenging without automation to create a tiered backup strategy to prioritise and maximise resources efficiently while ensuring critical data protection.
Niel Pandya, APAC & Japan CTO at OpenText Cybersecurity, likened backup and recovery with insurance, saying, “It is something that no one wants to have, but they know they need because when things go wrong it is your only safety net.”
“It is something that no one wants to have, but they know they need because when things go wrong it is your only safety net.”
Niel Pandya
However, despite the advantages of GenAI, he opined that it also increased the capacity of threat actors and has given the provisions to quickly churn out phishing and impersonation scams at a new level.
Abhilash Purushothaman, vice president and general manager of Asia at Rubrik remembered using legacy backup systems that primarily focus on mitigating low-frequency, high-impact events and were marked by manual efforts and technical recovery intricacies.
“With generative AI and modern backup solutions, businesses gained access to specialised tools which guide recovery and streamline decision-making during cyber incidents. These tools help accelerate recovery, minimise the risk of ransomware reinfection, and enable guided recovery for non-skilled personnel,” he said.
Automation
Fortunately, technology introduces automation to the otherwise manual and tedious backup and recovery process. Hardman said, “It significantly reduces time and manual effort, minimises human error, increases resiliency, and improves overall reliability and safety”.
He added that it opened doors for tiered storage based on criticality and usage patterns and automatic categorisation of data, which paved the way for more cost and energy-efficient storage operations.
“The benefits derived from automation depend largely on the organisation’s deployment of the right software and infrastructure. I would theorise that for most firms it is still early days when it comes to adoption,” he said.
For Pandya, the automation of backup systems drove its widespread adoption.
He said, “When back-ups needed to be done manually, it was seen as an expensive process that cost more time and money than it would save. The most notable benefit is the reduction in human error, which has helped in quickening the backup process and enabling workers to focus on other crucial tasks and making workflows more strategic and productive,”
For him, automation caused more reliability and consistency in the backup process and helped to prevent accidental deletions or data overwrites.
For Purushothaman, automated backup processes, resulted in time and cost savings, improved data security, and simplified recovery procedures. However, he believes that the ever-evolving landscape of backup makes automation difficult to execute.
“Cloud backup solutions should be able to detect new data (particularly sensitive data like personally identifiable information) that requires protection and automatically apply and enforce relevant global data protection policies,” he said.
Automation and data recovery success
“In Asia, 73% of C-level executives and IT decision-makers were concerned about their infrastructure’s resilience against breaches,” shared Hardman of their latest Hitachi Vantara Modern Data Infrastructure Dynamics Report.
“Automation can help address this by ensuring up-to-date and secure backups. It also enables quicker recovery, preventing catastrophic downtimes as a result of a breach,” the Hitachi Vantara executive said.
Pandya noted the tremendous impact of automation on data recovery success rates by minimising the risk of human error and providing faster and more reliable data recovery.
“Automation plays a crucial role in protecting against cyberattacks, including ransomware and zero-day attacks, by minimising security risk and reducing downtime that leads to productivity loss,” he said.
Purushothaman highlights the role of automation in enhancing data recovery efficiency in the face of cyberattacks. He also observed how automated backups enable swift data restoration, minimise downtime and ensure cyber resilience.
“This automation removes the complexity of backup management and enables organisations to effectively combat the challenges posed by cyber threats, enhancing their resilience and ability to swiftly recover critical data,” he added.
Impact of GenAI on the backup and recovery processes
Now that GenAI has been making waves across various use cases, Hardman believes that it can also “revolutionise storage, backup, and recovery processes by offering unparalleled intelligence and adaptability”.
“The greater the adoption of generative AI across the business, the more necessary generative AI becomes to manage the surge in data generated and stored,” Hardman added.
The greater the adoption of generative AI across the business, the more necessary generative AI becomes to manage the surge in data generated and stored.
Matthew Hardman
He also highlighted the need for intelligent backup and recovery processes to sort through, classify, and effectively store vast amounts of data.
For Pandya, AI enhanced the capabilities of backup software, equipping systems with advanced algorithms that can proactively detect and respond to potential threats.
“Additionally, AI-powered backup systems can significantly reduce data recovery time by quickly identifying and restoring compromised data,” he shared.
“Imagine if an organisation in a ransomware attack is not equipped with the right technical knowledge to begin its recovery process; they risk significant operational disruption, often resulting in severe financial loss and reputational damage for the business,” Purushothaman said.
For him, GenAI solutions guide backup and recovery teams in the data recovery process and provide a clear path to recovery.
Factors to consider
“As backup and recovery teams contemplate incorporating AI tools, Teams must ensure that AI implementations align with organisational data policies and security standards. Moreover, the potential environmental impact of data infrastructure, highlighted by the drive towards sustainability, necessitates that AI tools also contribute to energy-efficient and sustainable data management practices,” explains Hardman on the factors IT teams can consider in including AI tools in the backup and recovery processes.
“Furthermore, the intricacies of data types, including the need to differentiate backup strategies based on data value, sensitivity, and regulatory constraints, underline the importance of a multifaceted approach to backup and recovery,” he concluded.
Pandya says the key processes in the inclusion of AI-enabled tools in the backup and recovery processes are a healthy mix of technology and policies applied based on the organisation’s standards.
“The most important process which is testing the recovery procedure as per the organisation’s policies will always help in gaining a fair understanding of how the tools and policies would help protect the data,”
“Today, malicious actors leverage AI in their attacks, so organisations need to fight fire with fire,” Purushothaman said.
Today, malicious actors leverage AI in their attacks, so organisations need to fight fire with fire.
Abhilash Purushothaman
He said organisations can maximise AI in accelerating cyber detection, recovery, and resilience for all levels of cyber expertise.
“The use of AI in backup and recovery is best demonstrated when considering the security layers of an enterprise. Should the initial security infrastructure fail, the data posture management layer must prevent repeated attacks by arming the SecOps team with real-time data posture information,” he said.
For the Rubrik executive, AI should also be used for “predictive deep learning, to deliver proactive top-of-telemetry data to identify issues quickly, notify users before they see it in their environments, and aid with recommendations based on where they are in their cyber resilience journey".
World Backup Day
As the world was reminded of World Backup Day, individuals and organisations are invited to pledge to backup important documents and precious memories and tell others about the annual celebration, standing true to the last line of the World Backup Day Pledge: “Real friends don't let friends go without a backup.”
