How to build data resilience for severe incidents?
Although many companies have enterprise cybersecurity plans, not all ensure the necessary resilience to withstand severe incidents.
Without a comprehensive strategy that guarantees rapid recovery and operational continuity, they risk “drowning close to shore.”
Confusion Between Protection and Resilience.
For many organizations, data resilience is often mistaken for cyberattack protection and assumed to be covered by traditional systems.
However, the true value of resilience only becomes apparent when a failure or attack threatens operations.
Ransomware will continue to be a persistent threat throughout 2025, whether from organized groups or opportunistic attackers.
According to a recent Veeam report, lack of preparedness can result in significant financial losses, wasted time, and diminished trust from clients and partners.
A data resilience strategy relying solely on backups is no longer sufficient given the evolving cyber threats, regulatory pressures, and increasing complexity of data ecosystems.
In fact, companies with a robust resilience model can recover up to seven times faster after an attack and minimize data loss and operational downtime compared to those with only basic strategies.
A Model for Maturity Assessment.
To address this need, Veeam, in collaboration with McKinsey, developed the industry’s first Data Resilience Maturity Model (DRMM).
This model was based on a survey of 500 technology leaders from large enterprises and interviews with 50 C-level executives, revealing that 69% of companies experienced at least one attack in the past year, while 74% failed to meet best resilience practices.
A key issue identified was that resilience standards have not kept pace with the adoption of new technologies.
This is highlighted by Andrés de Beitia, Senior Director of Inside Sales for Latin America at Veeam:
“The vast amount of information required and generated by these applications has led to dispersed data profiles that easily exceed low-security control models. This underscores the importance of having data resilience solutions tailored to your specific needs.”
The DRMM recommends that companies begin by clearly defining their data profile: what data they possess, where it is stored, and whether it is truly necessary.
With this inventory, targeted measures can be implemented to protect against attacks.
Continuous Testing and a Holistic Approach.
Achieving true data resilience requires a structured, cross-functional approach that integrates IT, security, and compliance initiatives into a cohesive strategy.
Moreover, De Beitia emphasized the importance of continuously testing resilience measures to ensure their effectiveness:
“Once new data resilience measures are implemented, it’s time to put them to the test—and not just once. These measures must be rigorously and continuously tested, pushed to their limits as they would be in a real scenario: cyberattackers won’t stop when your systems begin to fail, nor will they wait until you’re fully protected. The best approach is to always be safeguarded with appropriate solutions.”
In a landscape where companies face multiple challenges, neglecting data recovery and protection can put all productive efforts at risk in the event of an attack.
Swimming hard without a clear strategy carries the risk of drowning close to shore.
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