Data Protection: The perils of working from home

Majority of businesses have turned towards digitising their processes to maintain their business continuity, realising it is essential to adopt innovative solutions and services. This, coupled with the rise in the adoption of online models of conducting businesses, has led to an exponential growth in data generated, causing a data deluge. Hence, organisations are looking for a one-stop solution to manage this growth and protect their data and other IT needs.

To understand the challenges being faced by businesses as a result of the pandemic, Dell Technologies in association with Vanson Bourne released the findings of the 2021 Global Data Protection Index. The study highlights how organisations are combating continued data growth and increased data protection complexities.

According to the report, businesses globally are currently managing 10 times the data that they used to five years ago. However, they are unsure of their capabilities to meet cybersecurity goals in the future. This, when coupled with the increase in cyber threat incidents and the rise in sophisticated ransomwares, brings forth a grave problem.

“The move to a hybrid/remote mode of working has led to the adoption of digital processes by businesses. In India, this trend is on the rise, and even though organisations continue to look for ways to secure business insights from data, the need to protect it, seems to be amiss,” said Ripu Bajwa, director & general manager, Data Protection Solutions, Dell Technologies India. “The onus to secure against vulnerabilities and act upon the insights from IT decision-makers, lies with the leaderships across businesses,” he added. “The important thing to keep in mind here, is to opt for security solutions that are customised for your business needs.”

Around 68% of the businesses in India believe that their existing data protection solutions will not be able to meet the challenges of the future. Almost 42% lack confidence that all their business-critical data can be recovered in the event of a destructive cyberattack or data loss. These apprehensions are not ill-founded as 74% of the Indian businesses reported increased incidents of data loss from cyberattacks in the past year with the growth of employees working from home. “To ensure the seamless movement of data from endpoints to data centers and clouds, the demand to protect data when it is managed during processes, is increasing. This has increased the pressure on IT professionals, who cannot act without the proper infrastructure and help from skilled people with a talent in data sciences,” says Bajwa.

Another interesting trend Dell Technologies officials have witnessed due to data deluge is the increased adoption of as-a-service (aaS) offerings, be it for cyber recovery, disaster recovery or data backup. This is because the data growth has forced organisations to adopt more convenient and flexible IT offerings for easy management of, and to safeguard their mission critical data from any kind of cyber-attacks. Around 84% of businesses are willing to deploy as-a-service offerings to not only increase business agility but also simplify their digital transformation. This shift towards aaS will result in businesses improving the security and flexibility of their IT infrastructure, helping them to achieve better business results.

“Organisations who want to realise their digital transformation goals and secure themselves against cyber threats will need to act now. Even the smallest of efforts can help businesses secure their future. Simple measures like choosing a VPN, conducting a password audit and investing in the correct infrastructure solutions, will go a long way in protecting crucial data for businesses in India,” Bajwa added.

Originally appeared on: TheSpuzz