Law enforcement in one European country recently accidentally deleted more than 150,000 files containing fingerprint, DNA, and arrest information from national police systems. This immediately called into question whether proper protection solutions, backups, or policies were in place to both prevent this data loss - and to quickly recover the deleted data.

But this is not necessarily an isolated incident. A report by industry analysts IDC into backup and disaster recovery found that 43 percent of organizations surveyed had suffered unrecoverable data within the last year (2021) and very few organizations (20.4 percent) were confident in their solution’s ability to recover data

This not only calls into question the types of backup solutions that have been deployed, but the overall data management strategy that’s in place.

Next-gen data management: important for business success

In prior decades, proper data management meant having a backup copy of data that could be called on as an insurance policy if it was ever needed. That’s no longer the case. Not even close. Today, not only is stored production data frequently encrypted by bad actors engaging in ransomware attacks, but conventional backups are often destroyed at the same time. In addition, organizations need to meet basic data availability and access requirements, comply with government regulations, optimize storage costs, and/or analyse data for key business insights. As a result, relying on outdated data management systems is not just an IT problem - it poses a serious threat to business success.

Next-gen data management offers a combination of four elements to put companies in the driver’s seat with their data: zero-trust security principles, AI-powered insights, large scale simplicity, and third-party extensibility. This approach can help organizations ensure their data is backed up and protected. It can also play a key role in reducing data infrastructure silos which can help save money, increase productivity, and reduce a company’s attack surface, critical when trying to protect data from ransomware and other cyber threats. With next-gen data management, companies can also easily bring apps to the data, simplifying how organizations extract value from their data. Such next-gen data management solutions are already available today and are being used by numerous organizations around the world.

So, how should organizations evaluate their data landscape under this lens? And, given data is an organization's most important digital asset, what key considerations are rising to the top when it comes to data management in 2022? To answer these questions, consider the following three points.

1 Prepare for the worst case scenario

Ransomware is ubiquitous today. And, as these attacks become more sophisticated in nature, the problem is becoming more urgent. According to reports, Cybersecurity Ventures expects global cybercrime costs to grow by 15 percent per year over the next five years, reaching $10.5 trillion USD annually by 2025.

In addition to strong defences like firewalls and two-factor authentication, companies need to invest in modern data management solutions that include capabilities like AI-powered anomaly detection that can help businesses identify threats, respond, and if necessary, remediate quickly. These advanced solutions can also help organizations restore data and quickly resume operations without disappointing their customers or paying ransom to hackers.

2 Be ready for the hybrid future of work

Many companies are now using the cloud for everyday processes. Covid-19 has led to a further increase in global spending on public cloud services. According to Gartner, the sector has grown 23.1 percent to a total of $332.3 billion by 2021, up from $270 billion in 2020.

In addition to managing data on-premises, many enterprises are embracing a hybrid-cloud model, which also can include Data Management as a Service (DMaaS). With DMaaS, data and infrastructure are managed by a next-generation data management vendor and hosted by a leading cloud service provider. These services, which often include backup, disaster recovery and more, are designed to offer a host of benefits ranging from enhanced scalability and data security, to added flexibility and efficiency. These SaaS offerings can also enable companies to shift from a CapEx to an OpEx model and empower already-overstretched IT teams to focus on other business critical tasks.

3 Benefit from more effective data management

CIOs and their colleagues in business departments continue to be inundated with data. According to Frost & Sullivan analysts, spending on Big Data analytics will increase 4.5-fold by 2025. This shows that companies are increasingly focused on getting the most out of their information. That's another reason why data management has never been more important.

Organizations should embrace next-gen solutions that enable analysis through analytics, that make it easy for data to be used for development and testing, and where businesses can easily bring third party apps to the data, which opens up a new world of possibilities -- including improving data compliance and security.

Time for the next generation

With data constantly growing, budgets stagnating or even shrinking, and pressure to drive business value, a new way of looking at data management is key. Small improvements to legacy backup and storage technology likely won't be enough. Instead, it’s critical that companies embrace a next-gen approach that is designed to simplify data management, enhance security, and make data more productive in a dynamic hybrid cloud world.