2022 Data Protection Trends Report
The “2022 Data Protection Trends Report” provides a comprehensive analysis of key trends and challenges in data protection, as well as the evolving landscape of IT strategies. Based on a survey of over 3,000 IT decision makers and professionals from large organizations in 28 countries, the report emphasizes the following critical points:
- Budget and Investment:
- Surveyed organizations anticipate an average 5.9% increase in their data protection budget for 2022.
- Factors like the pandemic-driven shift in production environments and accelerated cloud initiatives contribute to this investment.
- Enterprise Heterogeneity:
- “Enterprise” now emphasizes the ability to support various workload categories, including cloud-hosted, business-critical apps, and legacy platforms.
- The report highlights that “heterogeneity” is a defining feature of the modern enterprise.
- Hybrid Infrastructure:
- Modern IT is characterized by a balance between on-premises and cloud-hosted servers (approx. 50/50).
- The data center remains relevant, requiring data protection strategies for physical, virtual, and cloud-based options.
- Drivers for Change:
- Organizations seek “better” data protection with a focus on reducing data loss (RPO), minimizing downtime (RTO), and enhancing reliability.
- Economic factors, such as transitioning from CapEx to OpEx, also drive value, and modern capabilities are crucial to meet diverse production needs.
- Modern Data Protection:
- Modern data protection is “cloudy,” integrated, and automated, including capabilities like DRaaS, IaaS/SaaS protection, and workload mobility between clouds.
- Backup is seen as a key component in ransomware strategies and should be integrated early in workload provisioning.
- Availability and Protection Gaps:
- Organizations face gaps between expected SLAs and IT’s ability to deliver in terms of availability and data protection.
- Rising criticality of workloads and key change drivers contribute to these gaps.
- The Veeam Perspective:
- Veeam offers a path to modern data protection, focusing on recovery objectives, investment maximization, and reduced management overhead.
- Veeam’s solutions cater to hybrid and multi-cloud IT strategies, protecting AWS, Azure, Google workloads, and more.
- Real-World Data Protection:
- All data matters; distinctions between “high priority” and “normal” data are minimal.
- Combining backups with snapshots/replication is necessary, given data loss and downtime tolerances.
- Cybersecurity and Disaster Recovery:
- Ransomware is a significant threat, highlighting the need for integrated cybersecurity and disaster recovery strategies.
- Organizations face challenges in recovering from ransomware attacks, emphasizing the importance of reliable backups.
- IT Modernization and Digital Transformation:
- IT modernization, particularly leveraging cloud-hosted services, is ongoing due to Digital Transformation initiatives and pandemic-driven changes.
- Legacy systems are being replaced to accommodate remote workforces and new initiatives.
