World Backup Day Quotes from Experts for 2025

Solutions Review’s Executive Editor Tim King compiled this roundup of World Backup Day quotes from experts for 2025, part of our ongoing coverage of the enterprise storage and data protection market.

In the age of AI, ransomware, and relentless cyber threats, data protection is no longer just an IT issue — it’s a boardroom imperative. As part of Solutions Review’s ongoing coverage of the enterprise storage, data protection, and backup and disaster recovery markets, our editors bring you an exclusive curation of World Backup Day 2025 insights from our expert community.

These curated quotes have been carefully vetted for business value — offering real-world insights, actionable advice, and forward-thinking reflections on the evolving role of backup in today’s enterprise environments. Whether you’re safeguarding cloud workloads or securing petabytes of mission-critical data, the wisdom shared here is designed to inform, inspire, and elevate your data resilience strategy.

Note: World Backup Day quotes are listed in the order we received them.

World Backup Day Quotes: Expert Insights for 2025

Steve Petryschuk – Director, Product Market & Strategy at Auvik

“You back up the data you know about, but what about the data you don’t see?

Shadow IT and shadow AI remain a major source of headaches for IT teams. Without proper oversight, sanctioned and unsanctioned SaaS applications can leave sensitive business information exposed. Companies are more likely to experience a cybersecurity incident if they can’t see where their data resides. When backups of sanctioned SaaS applications do exist, overlooked SaaS data often goes unprotected. To build a robust SaaS backup strategy, start by giving IT teams full visibility into the apps being used, so they can proactively secure, manage, and back up critical data.

Network data presents another crucial piece of the puzzle. According to the Auvik IT Trends 2025 Report, 61 percent of IT professionals update network configurations weekly, yet nearly half only document those changes monthly or less often. This creates a four-week window where documentation lags behind. This gap exposes businesses to unnecessary risk, especially when a simple, automated network backup solution can close it. Rather than building your own system, rely on established network management tools to automate configuration backups, track and highlight changes in real time, and alert you when unauthorized modifications occur.

By centralizing both SaaS and network management, IT teams will expand their data visibility and safeguard this often overlooked but critical data.”

Stephen Kowski – Field CTO at SlashNext

“Backing up data is crucial, but it’s only half the battle – you also need to protect your data from threats like phishing, BEC, and smishing that can compromise backups in the first place. Modern security requires real-time protection across all communication channels including email, mobile, and messaging apps to stop zero-hour threats before they reach users. The best defense combines advanced AI technology that can detect sophisticated attacks with a multi-layered approach that works across your entire digital ecosystem. With World Backup Day approaching, it’s the perfect time to remind everyone that comprehensive security and regular backups go hand-in-hand for true data protection.”

Kelvin Lim – Senior Director, Head of Security Engineering (APAC) at Black Duck

“Data is the ultimate digital asset for organizations. Losing or corrupting data can severely disrupt workflows, obstruct decision-making, and even threaten the very survival of a business. As such, establishing a reliable data backup and recovery system is crucial as the ultimate safeguard against risks such as cyberattacks, human errors, hardware malfunctions, power failures, and natural disasters.

Additionally, in a time of increasing cyber threats, data backup plays a pivotal role in enhancing cyber resilience by facilitating quicker recovery. This minimizes downtime and operational disruptions caused by incidents like ransomware attacks. This not only saves financial resources but also ensures that critical data can be recovered promptly, minimizing operational downtime and disruption. Backups provide an effective strategy for combating ransomware, enabling businesses to restore their data without succumbing to ransom demands. This approach not only reduces financial losses but also strengthens organizational adaptability and responsiveness in challenging circumstances.

To maximize the effectiveness of data backup efforts, it is essential to follow established industry best practices:

• Align backups with business and regulatory requirements: Ensure that your existing backup and restoration solutions meet the Recovery Time Objective (RTO) and Recovery Point Objective (RPO).

• Secure backup copies: Store backups safely in a secured, climate-controlled environment and comply with retention period guidelines.

• Encrypt backup data: Protect sensitive information by encrypting all backup data with strong encryption.

• Verify recoverability: Regularly test backup data to confirm that the recovery process is error-free.

• Differentiate between data backup and retention: Understand that these are distinct processes requiring tailored solutions.

• Maintain detailed documentation: Keep comprehensive records of backup policies and storage media.

• Account for proprietary formats: If backups are stored in a proprietary format, ensure you retain the tools needed to restore the data in the future.

• Adopt the 3-2-1 backup rule:

  • Retain three copies of data: the original and at least two backups.

  • Use two different storage types, such as internal drives, external drives, tapes, or cloud storage.

  • Store at least one backup in a separate physical location from the primary data.

By adhering to these practices, organizations can enhance their data backup strategies and ensure resilience against potential risks.”

Tim Roddy – VP of Product Advocacy at Zimperium

“As organizations and individuals recognize World Backup Day, it’s critical to acknowledge that traditional backup strategies alone are not enough. Cybercriminals now take on a mobile-first attack strategy, targeting mobile devices with sophisticated threats, including mobile malware, phishing attacks, and zero-day exploits—putting sensitive data at risk before it can even be backed up.

To ensure data integrity, businesses must implement a proactive mobile security strategy that protects data at the source—on the devices and applications where it resides. AI-driven mobile threat defense, like Zimperium’s, helps detect and mitigate threats in real time, preventing attackers from accessing or corrupting critical business and personal data. On this World Backup Day, organizations should go beyond backups and reinforce their security posture with comprehensive mobile protection, ensuring that backups remain uncompromised and data stays secure.”

Corey Nachreiner – CISO at WatchGuard Technologies

“In a digital environment where 80 percent of organizations are vulnerable to ransomware attacks, implementing regular data backups across your organization’s critical components is key to your cybersecurity strategy. Backups significantly reduce downtime and accelerate recovery following an attack on your data or any other data-damaging disaster that a business might face. This practice prevents organizations from the severe financial losses and reputational damage that often come with experiencing data loss.

Consistent backups support data protection and business security. They can also ensure companies comply with regulatory requirements, which require backups. Good backups guarantee a business can survive a data loss event, like ransomware, and continue making business decisions based on its data. As an aside, you should also encrypt your data too. Backups can prevent data loss or destruction by offering a recovery option in the event of ransomware or some natural disaster that ruins data, but it does nothing to hide your data from unauthorized thieves. Encrypting your data should also prevent outsiders from using it in the case of a data breach.

 However, you already know all that. The industry has talked about the importance of data backups for decades. So, while World Backup Day is an important reminder about backups, I suggest we change it to World Backup Testing Day. While many organizations implement regular systematic backups, many do not go back in time to test their work and make sure their backups actually recover properly when needed. A corrupted backup that isn’t discovered until you need it is as bad as no backup at all. I recommend you spend this World Backup Day making sure your backups restore and then continue backing up regularly.”

Bob Fine – Senior Analyst Relations Manager at Quantum

“Businesses rely so heavily on data now that it’s simply impossible to operate without it. And if you need data, you need to be able to store it securely. In a crisis – such as a cyberattack or a natural disaster – a backup of these data stores must be secure, safe, and recoverable to ensure that the IT teams can get the business back up and running as quickly as possible. The longer it takes to restore the backup, the greater the consequences, including both financial and reputational losses. 
“The best protection that businesses can give their backups is to keep at least two copies, one offline and the other offsite. By keeping one offline, an airgap is created between the backup and the rest of the IT environment. Should a business be the victim of a cyberattack, the threat physically cannot spread into the backup as there’s no connection to enable this daisy-chain effect. By keeping another copy offsite, businesses can prevent the backup suffering due to the same disaster (such as flooding or wildfires) as the main office.

“Linear Tape Open (LTO) tape storage is a tried and tested example of a reliable airgapped storage system. As it celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, LTO tape storage is as popular as ever, as businesses are increasingly reliant on their backups. With research finding that a company falls victim to a ransomware attack every 14 seconds, and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change reporting that the number of disasters has increased by a factor of five over a 50-year period, ensuring that your company has the right backup measures in place is a fundamental requirement of a successful business in 2025.”

Carl D’Halluin – CTO at Datadobi

“This World Backup Day serves as a crucial reminder for organizations to prioritize data preservation and intelligent management. First, ensure you maintain a ‘golden copy’ of your data—an immutable, secure backup that protects against loss, corruption, or threats. Second, focus on understanding your data. In today’s digital landscape, every part of a business generates data, often managed in silos. You can’t protect what you don’t know exists. By implementing robust data management solutions, organizations can reduce risk and strengthen their operational resilience.”

Martin Kunze – Co-Founder and CMO at Cerabyte

“In a world where every digital moment carries weight, World Backup Day is more than a reminder to protect our files – it’s a call to safeguard the digital legacy that shapes our era and our society. True data preservation isn’t just about storage; it’s about ensuring that today’s knowledge, culture, and discoveries remain accessible for generations to come.
 Information is the spine of our society, and it is threatened more than ever. Preserving this legacy demands more than traditional backup methods. It requires a future-proof strategy that resists degradation, overcomes obsolescence, and guarantees permanent access. This isn’t just about saving data. It’s about securing digital immortality.”

Lance Ohara – Vice President of Endpoint Marketing at Seagate Technology

“Your devices hold irreplaceable photos and videos, creative work and passion projects, business information, and important financial and medical documents. Without a backup, you risk losing this crucial data.

World Backup Day is the perfect time to examine your data storage and make sure the information that matters to you is backed up. In preparation, I recommend the following strategies to help secure what matters most.

You’re storing so much more than just data. Your data includes precious photos and memories of your family vacations. For creative professionals and hobbyists, like photographers and musicians, their data includes years of creative work. For gamers, it’s hours of gameplay and entertainment. Imagine that data lost forever. To put the data volume into perspective, one Seagate LaCie Rugged solid-state drive (SSD) Pro5 4TB can store:

• 400,000 of photos – that’s precious memories of families and friends you can’t get back once they’re gone or a significant portion of professional photographer’s portfolio
• 800,000 of songs – that’s hours of creativity and inspiration from musicians, singers and songwriters
• Over 83,000 30-second videos and over 13,000 3-minute videos – that’s hours and hours of recordings of your children’s ballet recitals and soccer games or the hard work influencers put into the content that connects them with their audiences
• 400 saved video games – so gamers can play their favorite titles and save their progress

Follow the 3-2-1 rule for data storage: This means keeping three versions of your data in a few different places – the original and two copies on two different media, with one offsite. For consumers, this means the original data on your laptop, a backup to a storage device, and a cloud backup.

Backup your devices to safeguard your data: A lost or stolen device is a stressful ordeal, but a recent data backup gives you peace of mind that your most precious data isn’t lost forever. Backups also make it easier to transfer your data, streamlining the process of setting up a new device with the information and settings you need. External data storage also gives users the option to free up space on devices to improve performance and speed.

Backups protect and speed your game play: Video games take up a lot of storage – an SSD backup is great for gamers who want to access their full gaming library quickly. And backups mean gamers don’t lose their hard-earned progress and achievements.

Data backups also protect against cybersecurity threats: Bad actors can take over a recent backup and encrypt your files, demanding ransom. If a backup system is not properly secured, they can gain access to it, essentially rendering your recovery option useless and forcing you to pay to decrypt your data. This is a tactic used to maximize pressure on victims to pay the ransom. If you have an immutable backup of your important information in your cloud service (like Seagate’s Lyve Cloud), you can still access your critical information without paying the bad actors.”

Jimmy Tam – CEO at Peer Software

“World Backup Day serves as a crucial reminder that data resilience isn’t just about having a copy of your data, it’s about ensuring business continuity with minimal disruption. Many organizations still rely on centralized storage models, but these systems pose risks. A single point of failure, slow recovery from outages, and the increasing complexity of modern data environments demand a re-evaluation of storage strategies. The rise of distributed storage models, which keep data where it is created and used most, provides an opportunity to enhance resilience. However, simply decentralizing data isn’t enough. Businesses must also adopt robust data orchestration strategies to ensure efficient access, security, and performance. As data volumes grow and compliance demands become more stringent, companies must rethink how they store, manage, and protect their critical assets to minimize downtime and financial loss.

By understanding data flows, leveraging AI-driven storage optimization, and ensuring strong security measures, organizations can build a storage infrastructure that withstands disruptions and safeguards business operations. This World Backup Day, organizations need to take the time to evaluate their storage strategy because the cost of downtime is too high to ignore.”

Molly Presley – SVP of Global Marketing at Hammerspace

“World Backup Day emphasizes the critical role of data in various aspects of our lives and underscores the importance of protecting and maintaining our valuable digital assets and information, a topic of significant relevance today. It reinforces the importance of automation in protecting and backing up data across a company’s global infrastructure is increasing with the rise of cyber-attack threats, data breaches, and unrelenting data growth, underscoring automation’s crucial role in data management and cybersecurity.

Managing vast unstructured data across diverse storage systems, multiple global locations, and cloud platforms requires considerable effort and resources. Relying on manual processes is increasingly time-consuming and risky, exposing critical data to human error and missed backups.

By implementing global-level data protection services, organizations will defend global datasets and maximize their value through automated policies. As organizations become increasingly driven by artificial intelligence, where data is essential to accurate analysis and drive informed decisions and innovative breakthroughs, automation is becoming indispensable.

Automated data protection policies bolster enforcement across distributed geographies, strengthening an organization’s data resiliency and business continuity. They also enable organizations to manage their global data environments and maintain the efficacy of their AI systems and data pipelines.

A streamlined, policy-driven data management approach can transform how organizations manage and protect data by distinguishing newly created data, ensuring global data protection across distributed locations, automating data copy creation controls and services, and enforcing compliance with corporate governance standards.”

Sterling Wilson – Field CTO at Object First

“Here we are, one of my favorite days, World Backup Day. For me, World Backup Day is not about remembering to back up your data. It’s a call to be proactive, to review your data resilience strategy and ensure your ability to protect your data against the ‘ever-evolving’ threats.

Where to start? The basics, of course. True data resilience begins with data you can trust. That starts with immutable storage. Immutable storage protects your data from ransomware’s encryption or deletion, among other things.

But that isn’t all. Certifying account separation between the backup application and the backup storage protects you from account compromise attacks. And of course, copies of your data in different resiliency zones/locations give you options should one path fail.

Ok, so data protection basics are covered, and your data is safe. What about bringing it back swiftly when the unthinkable happens? Exporting large amounts of critical business data and applications out of the cloud can take days, if not weeks, possibly bringing extra fees with it. Providing secure, on-prem storage as one of your resiliency zones lets you recover your data at the fastest speed possible no matter the status of your external connections. This is often overlooked as cloud adoption as grown but remains a key pillar in a successful resiliency plan.

So, on World Backup Day, let this be your reminder to be proactive. Make sure your data is truly protected and resilient by today’s standards. Starting with the basics, of course.”

Eric Schott – Chief Product Officer at Object First

“Each year, World Backup Day serves as a crucial reminder of the growing importance of data protection in an era where cyber threats like ransomware are increasingly sophisticated. With data breaches, cyberattacks and human error contributing to increased business outages, it’s essential to adopt a comprehensive backup strategy built on zero trust principles. By implementing zero trust, organizations ensure that no device, user, or system is trusted by default, minimizing the risk of ransomware and other threats from gaining access to critical data, while continuous, immutable backups serve as the last line of defense.

Today, organizations should prioritize modern backup solutions that go beyond traditional approaches, incorporating encrypted backups, version control, and real-time synchronization across cloud and on-premises environments. These strategies, combined with zero trust, prevent unauthorized access and data manipulation, ensuring that even if ransomware breaches a system, the most recent, uncorrupted backup remains secure and recoverable. By embracing zero trust and immutable backup technologies, organizations can quickly restore operations and ensure business continuity.”

​Frank DeBenedetto – GTM General Manager of Backup at Kaseya

“Cloud and virtual tech bring flexibility and efficiency gains for companies, but they also introduce security gaps that hackers exploit. Attackers have shifted focus to target backup systems first, leaving businesses more vulnerable in the digital era. The rush to adopt these technologies has outpaced security planning, often leaving organizations defenseless.

World Backup Day highlights an urgent truth: traditional backup methods fail in these modern environments. Businesses doing things right deploy specialized strategies that protect their assets independently from their main systems. Businesses who don’t follow this framework risk permanent data loss.”

Emilio Sepulveda – Information Security Manager at Deepwatch

“World Backup Day, observed on March 31st, acts as a crucial reminder that data loss is inevitable, encouraging us to take proactive steps to protect our information. In today’s digital landscape, businesses rely heavily on data, yet many organizations neglect backup strategies until disaster strikes. Whether due to a ransomware attack, accidental deletion, or hardware failure, waiting until an incident occurs can be expensive.

Ensuring an efficient backup strategy is not just a checkbox on the compliance checklist; it is a critical business necessity. The ability to recover data swiftly can mean the difference between a minor setback and significant operational downtime. Adhering to the 3-2-1 rule (three copies of data, two different storage types, one offsite) provides a strong foundation, but it is not enough. Businesses must also account for modern threats such as misconfigured backups, cloud storage failures, and insider threats, which can render backups useless when needed.

Beyond simply having a backup strategy, organizations must regularly test their business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR) plans to ensure they function as intended. A backup that fails to restore is no better than having no backup at all. BCDR testing should be conducted at least annually, with more frequent assessments for critical data, to validate recovery timelines, verify data integrity, and identify overlooked vulnerabilities. This World Backup Day, take the time to review your backup and disaster recovery strategies.”

Heath Renfrow – Co-Founder at Fenix24

“World Backup Day serves as a timely reminder that backups are more than a best practice—they are a business imperative.

We’ve rebuilt hundreds of environments after ransomware attacks, and time and again, the difference between recovery and ruin comes down to one thing: backup resilience. Ransomware attacks are faster, smarter, and more destructive than ever. Traditional detection-and-response strategies alone aren’t enough.

To truly withstand today’s threat landscape, we advocate for our 5-4-3-2-1 backup methodology.

This strategy ensures data is not just duplicated, but hardened, diversified, and distributed in a way that aligns with today’s adversarial tactics. We’ve seen firsthand that even organizations with “immutable” backups are often vulnerable due to misconfigurations, exposed credentials, or lack of network segmentation. Backups must be redundant, isolated, and access-controlled. If threat actors can reach them, they will destroy them.

If your backups aren’t resilient, your business isn’t either. This World Backup Day, take a hard look at your strategy. It’s not just about checking a box, it’s about surviving the worst day your organization might face.”

Loren Johnson – Senior Director of Product Marketing at Aravo Solutions

“In the world of third-party risks, businesses that are deeply interconnected and interdependent will often share information that’s critical to optimizing their performance. It can mean they access the same systems, records, and processes, including customer records and other private data around which organizations often employ governance, policies, and access restrictions. That data can include information that is sensitive, proprietary, or otherwise ‘secret.’

As so many organizations face cybersecurity challenges that include attacks on data systems, defenses, integrity, and more than 35% of successful breaches are accomplished through third parties, it makes sense for businesses to collaborate with their third parties to protect, audit defenses, and back up their data on World Backup Day. Depending on the degree of interdependencies and data sensitivity, an organization may insist that their third-parties complete additional backups, conduct random system audits and stress testing to ensure that their data is protected.

Further, especially as some market analysts today suggest that “data is the new oil,” there are external pressures to ensure hypervigilance on data protection across the extended enterprise. Not only do regulators and enforcement agencies expect more data protection diligence and compliance, but the marketplace is consistently seeking additional transparency and accountability from the companies they do business with, especially when it comes to personally identifiable information. Companies that fail to back up their data and ensure its integrity risk losing data and suffering long-term damage to their reputations.”

Roger Williams – Community Manager at Kinsta

“The biggest mistake businesses make with website backups is assuming they’re covered without verifying. A backup is only as good as its restore process—if you can’t recover your site quickly, it’s not useful.

Website maintenance is often overlooked because it’s ‘out of sight, out of mind’—until something goes wrong. Many businesses see it as an IT task rather than a critical part of performance, security, and customer experience. The shift comes from recognizing that a well-maintained website means fewer disruptions, better SEO, and a stronger brand reputation.

Businesses should prioritize these key maintenance tasks:

• Backups – Ensure you have recent, restorable backups in case of an emergency.
• Security & Malware Scans – Check for vulnerabilities and take advantage of free malware cleanup if needed.
• Performance Optimization – Use tools like Kinsta’s Application Performance Monitoring (APM) to identify slow-loading pages.
• Update & Test – Keep WordPress, themes, and plugins updated, using a staging environment to test changes safely.
• Fix Broken Links & Redirects – Use a search and replace tool for typos or rebrands and a redirect manager to fix 404 errors and improve SEO.”

Jim Liddle, Chief Innovation Officer Data and AI Strategy at Nasuni​

“The inclination to delete historical data as a means of cutting costs or managing storage has been growing, particularly as data volumes surge with the rise of artificial intelligence. However, removing data can lead to unintended consequences, such as generating inaccurate results due to missing context, or introducing new compliance challenges. In fact, failing to follow proper data disposal procedures or timelines can result in fines, especially in industries like manufacturing and Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC). 

Instead of treating data management as a binary decision between deletion and retention, organizations should explore intelligent strategies that preserve valuable data while controlling costs and minimizing unnecessary clutter. For instance, more refined methods like smart archiving or privacy-preserving techniques offer effective alternatives. Smart archiving moves data to more affordable storage tiers, allowing companies to retain high-value unstructured data while discarding redundant or low-importance information. Meanwhile, privacy-preserving methods—such as anonymization and pseudonymization—help maintain data usefulness while easing regulatory concerns. 

A successful strategy boils down to having a flexible infrastructure that supports dynamic data management. This enables organizations to preserve their data safely and efficiently, without resorting to deletion.“

Simon Jelley – General Manager & Vice President, Data Protection at Arctera

“Amid the rapid acceleration of artificial intelligence (AI) use and development, the technology has emerged as a tool for enhanced data security, monitoring and productivity. Along with these incredible developments, though, comes new risks as the technology has dramatically increased an organization’s data loss risk and accelerated cybercriminals’ ability to disrupt networks.. Additionally, the ability to identify and exploit vulnerabilities using automated scanning and sophisticated phishing attacks introduces new challenges into an already complex and evolving cybersecurity landscape.

It’s more complicated—and more important—for organizations to be on top of today’s threat landscape, which changes constantly. While traditional threats like ransomware, data breaches, natural disasters and human error remain constant, the use of AI by bad actors has amplified not only the frequency of these attacks but their intensity, sophistication and potential damage as well.

World Backup Day 2025 provides a timely reminder that organizations cannot be complacent when it comes to security. Data protection is too complex today and data protection solutions are only built to empower data protection specialists. Instead, data protection should be accessible to all IT professionals – inclusive of those in new players in the IT field such as cloud and cyber security specialists.

Here are three key considerations when reviewing your data protection strategy on World Backup Day and every day:

• Cloud data is not immune to loss. In the cloud, security is a shared responsibility. Gaps between the cloud service provider, an organization’s IT and end users can lead to network breaches if one of the parties assumes the others are handling certain responsibilities. Because the cloud allows multiple devices to access many different applications, each of which could serve as a back door into the network, it’s crucial to maintain a resilient security posture using an integrated ecosystem of data security, protection and governance to ensure comprehensive coverage.
• Data is the lifeblood of every organization. Data fuels operational success and innovation. Protecting this asset from AI-enhanced threats is essential. Organizations must implement advanced data security measures to safeguard their intellectual property, customer information and overall business integrity. This is doubly important in highly regulated industries such as financial services, government and healthcare. Implementing advanced data protection and resilience strategies is table stakes to ensure data remains secure and resilient against evolving cyber threats.
• Ransomware continues to be relevant, particularly to SMBs. Small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) can be easy marks for AI-powered attacks due to limited IT resources and the growing complexity of today’s networks. SMBs need resilience solutions that balance ease of use and cost-effectiveness with state-of-the-art backup and recovery capabilities that include proactive detection of threats and round-the-clock monitoring. Adopting these comprehensive measures, SMBs can reduce their vulnerability to ransomware and other cyber threats.”

Kyle Edsall – Technical Product Marketing Manager at CTERA

“Unlike other annual events that allow us to indulge in a pumpkin spice latte or receive chocolates from an admirer, World Backup Day is a reminder for organizations and the technology professionals who work for them to reflect on the efficacy of their backup and recovery strategies.

There’s never a bad time for some self-evaluation. Sure, it may sound less exciting than searching for the hazelnut butter toffee in a box of mixed chocolates, but for nerds like me, the opportunity to reflect on my backup strategy is just as sweet.

5 Backup Must-Haves

Let’s make this easy!  Here are the 5 checkboxes that every backup solution should tick:

Immutable: This is just a fancy tech term for saying your snapshot data is locked down. There’s no chance of accidental or deliberate modifications to your snapshot backups. Your content stays safe and accessible, even if the worst happens and someone gains access to your system with stolen credentials.

Immediate: When you need your files back, don’t get caught waiting for a retrieval. Restoration should be instantaneous, full stop. The faster you get back to work, the better.

User Accessible: Users should be able to retrieve their own file versions without leaving Windows Explorer or having to install or learn a new tool. Plus, getting staff back to work faster by eliminating the wait for help-desk ticket response is an empowering win/win!

Continuous Automatic Backups: Forget complex data-backup schedules. Instead, just focus on retention. How long does your business need to keep snapshots and deleted data? Once you make that decision, go ahead and put your feet up because every time a user saves a file, boom, that’s another version secured. Job well done, IT!

Space-Saving: You might have 100+ versions of a file, but you shouldn’t need to store it 100 times. Block-level changes ensure only the modified part is saved or updated since the last snapshotted version. Adding deduplication and compression and you’ve got yourself some ridiculously efficient snapshot retention!

What do all the above elements have in common?

Cost Savings

Needing less storage space for backups means fewer storage requirements, which translates into lower costs.   Plus, when backup is integrated into the file system itself, there’s no separate systems to maintain and pay for. And don’t forget that the previously mentioned user-accessible snapshots have reduced help desk overhead.  So, tuck a few of those bills back into your wallet.

Lastly, continuous backups provide you with more recent versions to restore, which means less lost work, and since the restore is immediate, you’re back to work faster than you can say “oops!

The Bottom Line of Backups

Just like the (now half-eaten) box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get when a data threat strikes. Backups are the foundation of your data protection strategy. Why not make them as effortless as they are resilient?  Nothing is more valuable than peace of mind, and from experience, nothing is more satisfying that executing a well-built plan.”

Ilia Sotnikov – VP of User Experience at Netwrix Corporation

“For me, World Backup Day is an opportunity to remember that backups are not just a goal in and of themselves—they are a cornerstone of business continuity. Yet, they don’t stand alone. Integrating other security measures ensures your organization’s backups are both robust and effective. Here are just a couple examples:

• Data Discovery and Classification: Aligning backups with recovery objectives is crucial. By identifying and classifying your organization’s most valuable data, you can distinguish critical system components from less important ones, crafting tailored backup and recovery strategies. This approach not only saves time and money but ensures that restoring crucial systems is prioritized over less urgent data, minimizing downtime.
• Change Auditing and Activity Monitoring: Prioritizing recovery efforts post-incident can make a huge difference. While restoring extensive data can span from hours to weeks, a focused strategy accelerates the getting the essential operations up and running. Understanding which data has been affected allows security teams to react swiftly. Utilizing change tracking and system auditing solutions helps identify undesirable changes, enabling recovery tools to efficiently roll them back.

In today’s SaaS-driven world, segments of your systems are backed up by cloud service providers. When you are working on the recovery or business continuity strategy, it’s essential to outline responsibilities within the incident response plan. Ensure clarity on which tasks fall to internal teams, and which are handled by providers. While most cloud services guarantee platform and data availability, they might not offer granular rollback or restore options.

Lastly, in the realm of security, securing backups is as critical as protecting the original data. There is no shortage of instances of threat actors ‘poisoning’ backups—either to prolong recovery times or to maintain a foothold in the environment.”

James Van Patten – Director, Memory and Storage Product Line Management at Micron Technology

“Data loss can strike at any moment, catching both consumers and businesses off guard. It’s crucial to take proactive steps to back up your data and avoid the chaos that comes with losing important information. World Backup Day is a perfect reminder to protect our digital memories and prioritize data safety. Invest in reliable backup solutions like cloud storage, internal drives, or external drives to keep your data secure and easily accessible.”

Rekha Shenoy – CEO at BackBox

“Happy to be here as a new member, especially on World Backup Day! It’s interesting to reflect on how much the IT security landscape has changed since World Backup Day started in 2011. What initially focused on protecting against hardware failures and basic data loss has become a much more complex fight against increasingly sophisticated cyber threats.

The Escalating Threat Landscape

Think back to 2011 – the threats we faced then seem almost rudimentary compared to today’s reality. We’ve moved from relatively simple attacks to intricate, multi-stage campaigns. Ransomware, which used to be primarily about encryption, now commonly involves “double extortion” tactics, where attackers threaten to leak data publicly in addition to encrypting it. And let’s not forget the rise of state-sponsored attacks and cyber warfare, which are now targeting critical infrastructure.

Expanding Attack Surfaces

The explosion of mobile devices and widespread cloud adoption has significantly widened our attack surface. Securing remote workforces and data residing in the cloud presents a whole new set of challenges. The sheer volume of data we’re dealing with only amplifies these concerns, requiring more robust data protection and backup strategies, especially when you factor in stringent regulations like GDPR.

The Double-Edged Sword of Technology

While advancements like AI and automation offer us enhanced security capabilities through anomaly detection and automated responses, they also empower attackers. We’re seeing more sophisticated malware and phishing techniques leveraging these same technologies. The sheer volume of security alerts we face necessitates automation, but this also introduces the risk of automated attacks slipping through the cracks. Similarly, the growing Internet of Things (IoT) and increased interconnectedness of our systems create new vulnerabilities and make lateral movement within networks easier for attackers.

The Evolving Role of Backup and Beyond

World Backup Day’s initial emphasis on protecting against hardware-related data loss has fundamentally shifted. Backup is now a crucial line of defense against ransomware, and that demands immutable backups to prevent attackers from encrypting or deleting them. This shift reflects a broader evolution from a primarily perimeter-focused security model to a more holistic approach that prioritizes data protection, threat intelligence, and overall resilience.

Cyber Resilience in 2025 and Beyond

Today, achieving true cyber resilience goes way beyond just having backups. Our network security teams need to be proactive in assessing risk. This includes things like sensitive data scanning and categorization, risk recommendations, and implementing remediation strategies. We need tools that can detect cyber deception tactics, provide early warnings of potential breaches, and facilitate comprehensive incident response planning, including recovery point validation and regular cyber recovery testing. When an incident does occur, the recovery process must include thorough forensic analysis, the ability to restore from known clean points and verify their integrity, and scalable recovery options.

The modern IT security landscape demands a multi-layered and proactive approach. While robust backup remains a critical component, it’s now just one piece of a larger cyber resilience strategy. What are your thoughts on the biggest challenges and best practices for building cyber resilience in today’s environment? “