Modern backup strategies must support clean recovery, business continuity, and trusted data in an increasingly complex threat landscape.
World Backup Day remains an important reminder today to protect data, but the role of backup has changed significantly. Modern organisations face far more than accidental deletion or hardware failure. Ransomware, misconfiguration, insider risk, infrastructure outages, and AI-driven complexity have turned backup into a core part of cyber resilience rather than a routine IT task.
Recovery is now far more demanding than simply restoring files. Enterprise environments span on-premises systems, cloud platforms, SaaS applications, mobile endpoints, and remote users. In such a landscape, successful recovery depends on speed, sequencing, isolation, and trust in the data being restored. Backup success can no longer be measured only by completion reports or storage volumes. Real resilience is defined by whether critical business operations can restart safely and quickly.
A major concern now is that the backup infrastructure itself is under attack. Threat actors increasingly target backup environments, while hidden compromise inside networks can leave organisations unsure which data remains clean. As AI adoption expands, trusted data becomes even more critical because corrupted information can affect decisions, workflows, and outcomes at scale. Backup, therefore, serves not only as a recovery tool but as a source of integrity and business confidence.
Clean recovery has become the new benchmark. Organisations need immutable backups, isolated recovery environments, and realistic testing to ensure restored systems are free from compromise. Stronger strategies now combine production snapshots for fast recovery, replication to disaster recovery environments, and secure isolated recovery spaces where critical data can be inspected and sanitised before systems return online.
Regular testing is equally essential. A backup that has never been restored in a real-world scenario offers limited assurance. Clear recovery objectives, diversified storage, and copies held across multiple locations are now central to resilience planning. For organisations across the Gulf and beyond, World Backup Day is no longer just about keeping copies of data. It is about ensuring the business can recover with speed, confidence, and trust when disruption strikes.
Industry leaders shared with TahawulTech.com their perspectives on the changing role of backup, recovery, and cyber resilience.
Janne Hirvimies, Chief Technology Officer, QuantumGate
World Backup Day reminds us to protect our data. The question worth sitting with is whether we know where it all is. In a world where employees access enterprise systems from personal devices, the lines between work and personal data are blurred, and mobile endpoints are often outside the backup perimeter, not because of negligence, but because the architecture makes it hard. The more sustainable approach ensures enterprise data sits in infrastructure you control, fully separated from the personal side of any device, where backup and recovery policies apply. That is what makes backup discipline possible for BYOD.
Dave Russell, Senior Vice President and Head of Strategy, Veeam
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. 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.
Fred Lherault, Field CTO, EMEA Emerging, Everpure
For 24×7 global organisations, recovery targets are now clearly defined (and in many cases even enshrined in regulation), and organisations may have to recover the “minimal viable business” in a matter of hours, not days. Standard backups, or frankly any method that requires data movement at the time of recovery, will fail to meet the RTO requirements of the modern enterprise. Immutable snapshots on data storage systems that can directly be used to run services are the only way to achieve these recovery objectives, since no data movement is required. A strong resilience strategy still requires isolation as a core layer of protection. The ideal approach combines immutable snapshots on production storage for the fastest possible recovery, storage-level replication to disaster recovery systems to address physical or infrastructure outages, and replicated data with immutable copies in a Secure Isolated Recovery Environment or clean room. This isolated setup allows organisations to restore, inspect, and sanitise critical data needed to run the minimum viable business without reconnecting to a potentially compromised production network.
Gerald Beuchelt, CISO, Acronis
Backup, restore, disaster recovery, and business continuity all work together to ensure Availability, one of the three pillars of the CIA triad (Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability). When disruption hits, whether from ransomware, system failure, or human error, organisations with well-aligned recovery strategies can continue operating because they’ve planned ahead with business priorities in mind, not just technical ones. Backups also play a critical role in protecting Integrity. Especially with immutable backups, organisations gain a trusted, point-in-time record of their data. This isn’t just about recovery, it’s about accountability. From regulatory compliance to forensic investigations after an incident, having an authoritative data source can make the difference between clarity and chaos. And finally, the old approach to backups simply isn’t enough anymore. Storing a single copy in a single location creates a single point of failure. A resilient strategy today means diversification: multiple copies, across multiple geographic locations, using multiple types of storage, whether cloud buckets, physical drives, tapes, or beyond.
Manikandan Thangaraj, Vice President, ManageEngine
World Backup Day should go beyond confirming whether backups are running. The real test is whether an organisation can restore critical operations when disruption strikes. With IT environments spread across cloud, on-premises systems, SaaS, and endpoints, recovery has become more complex and must include realistic testing, immutable backups, isolated recovery environments, and stronger resilience planning.
Marcel Bornhöfft, Field CISO Associate, Sophos
Backups remain one of the most important defences against ransomware and continue to play a central role in recovery. While lower recovery costs suggest that resilience may be improving, the narrowing gap between organisations restoring from backups and those paying ransoms shows that many still cannot fully depend on their recovery capabilities. Reliable, secure, and regularly tested backups must form part of a broader resilience strategy.
Rich Greene, Certified Instructor, SANS Institute
The biggest weakness in backup strategies today is not the absence of backups, but the lack of recovery testing. Many organisations assume they can recover quickly, but real-world outcomes often prove otherwise. A backup that has never been restored is only a hope, not a strategy. Strong resilience depends on tested recovery plans, audited cloud retention settings, and the ability to recover confidently before attackers target backup infrastructure.
Mark Molyneux, Field CTO, Commvault
Backups are no longer just about restoring lost data. In today’s threat landscape, attackers can stay hidden inside networks for months, corrupting systems and even compromising backup environments before an incident becomes visible. This makes trusted, clean, and validated backups essential to operational resilience, especially as businesses adopt AI and rely on constantly changing data. World Backup Day should therefore serve as a reminder not only to back up data, but to regularly test, verify, and protect those backups so organisations can recover safely and confidently without reintroducing hidden threats.
Johnny Karam, Managing Director and Vice President, International Emerging Regions, Cohesity
Data loss can stem from ransomware, human mistakes, hardware failures, and increasingly, errors linked to autonomous systems. In the Gulf’s highly digital economies, where uninterrupted data access underpins critical operations, even brief disruptions can affect business continuity, customer service, and revenue. World Backup Day is, therefore a reminder that backup alone is not enough. Organisations need a broader resilience strategy that includes secure recovery, threat assessment, and clean restoration. With geopolitical risk reshaping enterprise data strategy, many are moving towards hybrid and multi-region approaches to ensure data can be recovered safely across trusted jurisdictions.
Naji Salameh, CEO, IT Max Global
Data is the lifeblood of every organisation in today’s digital-first world, and World Backup Day aligns with IT Max Global’s advocacy to secure data and strengthen organisations. Customers’ trust highly depends on the ability to protect and recover information instantly and securely. Businesses are exposed to everyday risks, including cyber threats, system failures, and human error. A strong backup strategy shouldn’t just be the responsibility of the IT department, but rather a priority mandated by the top leadership. Working with a trusted partner to establish resilient, automated, and tested backups ensures that operations are uninterrupted and innovation continues, no matter what happens.
Erich Kron, CISO Advisor, KnowBe4
In an era of AI, zero-day exploits, and nation-state threats, backups may seem basic, but many of the most damaging incidents arise from poor preparedness rather than advanced attacks. Data loss is inevitable and can result not only from ransomware but also from accidental deletion, hardware failure, software corruption, misconfiguration, insider threats, and natural disasters. Since no security control is foolproof, backups remain a vital layer of defence, helping organisations recover from disruption and preventing a difficult day from becoming a business-ending crisis.
Renat Tukanov – Group Chief Technology Officer, Freedom Holding Corp, represented in UAE with Abu Dhabi-based Freedom Broker.
Organisations must treat backup and recovery as a core architectural and managerial responsibility, because the ability to restore operations defines real digital resilience and sometimes the existence of the business itself. In today’s environment, cyber threats, system failures, and growing architectural complexity make incidents inevitable, and a company’s competitiveness depends on how quickly and reliably it can restore its operations. It is crucial to have tested recovery processes, clearly defined RTO and RPO targets, and immutable and isolated backups that are regularly tested through real recovery scenarios and don’t just occupy storage.
Dmitrii Gartung, Founder and CEO, OneSun
World Backup Day is a good reminder to think of disaster recovery, but obviously not the only day to do so. As an entrepreneur who experienced loss of data and virus attacks, I can vouch that data loss hits hard. DR matters more than high availability — data loss hits harder financially than temporary downtime. Have a clear, documented DR policy that covers all of this, test it regularly, and treat it as daily operations — not an annual ritual. Start with the basics: keep off-site backups, physically separated from production. Use multiple backup levels — application-level dumps for databases, full disk snapshots for infrastructure. One mechanism alone is not enough. And keep backups outside your main security perimeter — ransomware that encrypts your servers will encrypt your backups too if they sit on the same network.
Jen Blandos, Founder and CEO, Female Fusion Network
Most small business owners don’t think about backup and recovery until something goes catastrophically wrong. I’ve seen it happen. A crashed laptop, a hacked account, a platform outage, and suddenly, years of work are just gone. So here’s what we tell every business in our community: have at least two forms of backup, always. Cloud and local. Non-negotiable. But technology is only half of it – your team needs to know exactly what to save, where to save it, and how often. Build it into your Standard Operating Procedures from day one. Make it boring, make it routine, make it someone’s actual job. The best recovery plan is the one you never have to use.
Mike Chen, Senior Regional Sales Manager, Synology
World Backup Day serves as a reminder of the true data resilience that backup management promotes. Recovery readiness, which is the ability to quickly restore vital data, maintain business continuity, and react confidently to ransomware, system malfunctions, or human error, remains the highest priority. Across the region, organisations are beginning to understand that backups are no longer about storage alone but the foundation for resilience. As IT environments and threats grow more complex, businesses require protection strategies that are straightforward to implement, reliable for recovery, and designed to support both daily operations and unforeseen disruption.
Sonal Chiber, Financial Services Consultant
On World Backup Day, we are reminded that in a data-driven world, information is one of our most valuable assets. Yet many individuals and organisations still underestimate the risks of data loss until it is too late. Proactive backup strategies are no longer optional; they are essential for resilience, continuity, and trust. Whether it is personal memories or critical business data, safeguarding information through secure and regular backups ensures we stay prepared for the unexpected. True digital responsibility lies not just in creating data, but in protecting it consistently and intelligently.
Hyther Nizam, CEO, Zoho MEA
Data is the lifeline of any organisation, and making a strong and well-structured backup strategy is a strategic pillar of a business’ investment. Businesses must prioritise real-time data backup and synchronisation to ensure uninterrupted operations, as real-time sync enables continuity instantly and minimises potential downtime. At the same time, periodic backups, whether daily, weekly, or monthly, remain critical, not only for supporting regulatory audits and compliance requirements but also for enabling deeper data analysis and powering AI-driven use cases, providing a reliable foundation for both operational resilience and strategic decision-making. It’s equally important to ensure the ability to recover data quickly and completely, with backup systems designed for immediate recoverability to reduce risk and ensure business continuity in the event of any disruption. In parallel, organisations should adopt a multi-location approach to data storage to ensure redundancy, so that if one environment fails, another can seamlessly take over operations.
Rob Standing, Regional Vice President, Middle East, Africa, and Turkey, Rubrik
Organisations need to adopt a zero-trust approach, as it is not about ‘if’ but ‘when’ an attack will strike. Using immutable back-ups and air-gapped storage with multi-factor authentication will help prevent attackers from altering or encrypting data. To ensure continuity, define clear Recovery Point Objectives and Recovery Time Objectives, to continuously test recovery processes, and monitor for anomalies 24/7. Automated solutions enable fast restoration and seamless cloud integration, ensuring resilience against ever-evolving daily cyber threats.”
