2024 Data Protection Outlook: 9 Key Insights from Veeam’s Latest Trends Report 

1,200 Business and IT Leaders said…

The new Veeam 2024 Data Protection Trends Report is packed full of powerful insights into the state of data protection and cybersecurity in organizations globally. We read it cover to cover and came away with so many great takeaways we couldn’t resist pairing them with our favorite related content.  

1. Ransomware as the Primary Threat

Ransomware continues to be the biggest threat to business continuity, being the number one cause of outages. Despite increased spending on protection, less than a third of companies believe they can recover quickly from a small attack.  

• Fav Related Reading: 5 Dos and Don’ts if You’ve Been Hit with Ransomware 

2. Increased Cyber-Attacks and Concerns About Recovery

76% of organizations were attacked at least once in the past 12 months. There is a growing concern among IT leaders about their ability to recover and restore mission-critical data. Only a small percentage believe they could recover from even a small crisis in under a week. 

• Fav Related Reading: CIOs Ransomware Checklist: Before, During & After an Attack 

3. Container Usage and Backup Challenges

Container usage is on the rise, with 52%+ of enterprises running them in production. However, only 25% of organizations use a backup solution purpose-built for containers, while the rest only back up some underlying components. This lack of comprehensive backup solutions for containers could lead to challenges in resuming applications and services after a crisis. 

• Fav Related Reading: 6 Best Practices for Kubernetes Backup 

4. Job Changes and Impact on Data Protection

About 47% of respondents expressed an intent to seek a new job outside of their current organization within the next twelve months. This trend could lead to a loss of valuable data protection talent, impacting an organization’s ability to respond effectively to crises. 

The report goes on to say, “One established way that organizations are choosing to de-risk their exposure against labor or skill shortages is by engaging managed BaaS or DRaaS providers that ensure deep solution knowledge, operational monitoring, and primary technical support.” Think Dataprise!  

• Fav Related Reading: Cyber Talent Shortage: Forget About Hiring Cybersecurity Talent 

5. Shift in Backup Strategies for Hybrid Production Architectures

The most important considerations for enterprise backup solutions are reliability and the protection of cloud-hosted workloads (IaaS and SaaS). Organizations relying on older datacenter-centric data protection solutions may struggle to protect cloud-hosted workloads adequately. 

• Fav Related Watching: Achieving Optimal Data Protection with Microsoft Azure and Microsoft 365 

6. Protection of Microsoft 365 Data Continues to Rise

74% of respondents stated they are using a third-party backup product or BaaS service to protect their Microsoft 365 Data. This highlights a deep awareness of Microsoft’s Shared Responsibility Model and the reality that Microsoft does not protect your 365 data by default. 

• Fav Related Watching: Expectations vs Reality of Recovering Your Microsoft 365 Data 

7. IT Modernization Hampered by Cyber Threats

Protecting against cyber threats and addressing environmental, social, and governance goals are major inhibitors to IT modernization and digital transformation initiatives according to the report. To quote the report exactly, “Quite literally, organizations cannot invest where they want or need to, because of their efforts to protect themselves via cyber villains.” 

8. Data Protection Budget Increases

Data protection budgets are expected to grow by 6.6% in 2024, with 92% of organizations planning to spend more on data protection. This increase in spending reflects the need to prepare against cyber-attacks and adapt to the changing production landscape. 

• Fav Related Reading: 5 Tips to Maximize IT Budget & Strategy Goals 

9. Integration of Data Protection and IT Security

Modern data protection solutions increasingly integrate with cybersecurity tools. Mobility in cloud scenarios, including the ability to move workloads from one cloud to another, is becoming an important characteristic of these solutions. 

• Fav Related Reading: How can organizations bridge the gap between DR and cybersecurity? 

Bonus: Some of our favorite Dataprise + Veeam Webinars from 2023 

Expectations vs Reality of Recovering Your Microsoft 365 Data