April 2025

Elevating Backup from a Compliance Task to a Strategic Business Asset

The Heat Is On…

We are still in the early days of 2025 and from our engagements with customers and partners, it clear to see that backup infrastructures continue to face sophisticated ransomware attacks, supply chain compromises, and unauthorized insider access. Attackers are increasingly leveraging advanced automation to identify and exploit vulnerabilities in cloud-based storage and hyper-converged backup solutions.

The trending reveals a notable rise in double-extortion ransomware campaigns, with perpetrators seeking large-scale data exfiltration to maximize revenue potential. Gartner forecasts a 30% year-over-year increase in targeted backup attacks, underscoring the need for hardened, air-gapped solutions and immutability features. Organizations are adopting zero trust strategies and continuous monitoring to safeguard backups and ensure swift recovery.

From Technology to Business Outcome…

In 2025, organizations must no longer view backup as a siloed IT function. It is a business-critical pillar of enterprise resilience – and its alignment with broader security operations is non-negotiable. As the threat landscape grows increasingly complex, ensuring secure, recoverable backups is not a feature – it’s a responsibility.

To be honest, too many backup decisions are still made through a purely technical lens. But for today’s C-suite, the focus must shift from technology to outcome. The outcome must be business continuity, regulatory compliance, and resilience – not just the presence of a backup system. A recoverable backup is not merely a checkbox – it’s a guarantee that business operations can continue, even after a worst-case scenario.

When backup is aligned with security operations, organizations can deliver on governance, risk management, and compliance (GRC) requirements with far greater confidence. It enables real-time threat detection, faster response, and more reliable recovery – all of which are critical for meeting DORA, NIS2, and ISO standards.

Why Alignment Matters…

Cyber threats increasingly target backup environments – not just production data. Attackers know that if they can compromise backups, recovery becomes impossible. According to industry reports, over 70% of ransomware attacks now involve attempts to encrypt or delete backup data. This is why securing a recoverable backup is not a technology decision – it’s a critical business decision.

When backup strategies are fully aligned with security operations, organizations gain:

Improved Threat Visibility: Correlating backup and security event data helps identify anomalies faster and neutralize threats before damage spreads. Alignment with SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) platforms strengthens early-warning capabilities.

Stronger Data Integrity: Air-gapped backups and air-gapped storage ensure that recovery points remain tamper-proof, even in the event of a successful cyberattack. Air-gapped snapshots are increasingly seen as a regulatory expectation, not just a best practice.

Faster Incident Response: A well-aligned backup-security environment enables immediate containment and restoration, reducing Mean Time to Recovery (MTTR) and ensuring Service Level Objectives (SLOs) are met.

Compliance by Design: Aligned architectures enforce policy-based control, automated retention policies, audit trails, and full traceability across data protection workflows – fulfilling obligations under regulations such as GDPR, DORA, and NIS2.

Why Backup-as-a-Service Makes Strategic Sense…

Engaging a reputable Data Protection as a Service (DPaaS) provider with a robust separation-of-duties (SoD) governance framework is not just a tactical decision – it’s a strategic one. It improves your organization’s security posture, optimizes cost structures, and frees up internal resources for higher-value initiatives.

Enhanced Security and Oversight: A strong SoD framework ensures no single individual can compromise both production and backup environments. The backup infrastructure remains independently secured, monitored, and audited – mitigating insider threats and enforcing accountability.

Cost Efficiency: Building and maintaining enterprise-grade backup systems in-house is capital-intensive. A DPaaS model converts these into predictable operational expenses, eliminating the cost of hardware, software licensing, and specialist staffing.

Resource Optimization: Outsourcing to a DPaaS provider reduces the burden on internal teams. Instead of managing backups manually, in-house staff can focus on innovation and strategic priorities while relying on external experts to handle day-to-day backup reliability, compliance audits, and security updates.

Scalability and SLA-Driven Performance: A mature DPaaS partner provides SLA-based guarantees for recovery time objectives (RTO) and recovery point objectives (RPO), ensuring performance levels that most internal teams struggle to match.

A C-Level Imperative…

For executives, this isn’t a discussion about backup appliances or endpoint configurations. It’s about ensuring that governance frameworks are enforceable, that business risks are mitigated, and that compliance obligations are fulfilled. The true value of backup lies not in the tool, but in the assurance it provides. Organizations can no longer rely on reactive approaches – proactive alignment is now essential.

Final Word…

2025 will belong to those who understand this: Backup is no longer an IT cost. It’s a business-critical security layer. When aligned correctly, it becomes one of the most strategic decisions a leadership team can make – one that ensures business continuity, satisfies regulatory requirements, and protects reputational trust in the face of increasing cyber threats…

Do the right thing…

No. 1 Protect Your Business Confidently

• B4Restore has been protecting customers’ critical data for more than 20 years.

No.2 Leverage a High-Performance Data Protection Service

• B4Restore’s Backup-as-a-Service executes more than 70,000,000 backup jobs annually.

No. 3 Identify and Hire a Certified Managed Services Provider

• B4Restore’s information security standard is ISO 27001 certified.
• B4Restore’s Business Continuity Management approach is ISO 22301 certified.
• B4Restore has the independent service auditor’s ISAE 3000/3402 assurance report.