Predictions of Storage Vendors for 2022 - 53 Storage Vendors Opinion

CyberSecurity and it's strong threat Ransomware coming after significant attacks in 2021 was of primary concern, along with Cloud and Edge, AI/ML GPU Data Protection and Object storage.

Having an Air-Gap was mentioned multiple times by many of the Vendors, here are some snippets:

Acronis (Candid Wüest, VP of cyber protection research) Ransomware affecting your daily lives Ransomware is one of the most profitable cyberattacks at the moment. Despite some recent arrests, there is no end in sight. Ransomware will expand further to MacOS and Linux, as well as new environments such as virtual systems, cloud and OT/IoT. Anything that is connected to a reachable network is a potential target. This will increasingly lead to consequences and impacts in the real world, and thus also to more demand for official regulations and sanctions. Stealing data for double extortion as well as disabling security tools will be the norm, but it will also become more personal with insider threats and personal data. The chaos will continue as groups keep rebranding to defy investigations and ransomware-as-a-service will get smaller tier groups allowing for overlapping usage of different families

Arcserve (Shridar Subramanian, CMO) It is more important than ever to protect business data from damage, destruction, or attack in today's hyper-connected digital economy. Indeed, it is not an exaggeration to say that the viability of every business now depends on constant access to its critical systems and data. Of course, managing and protecting your business data is no easy task. You must constantly monitor the changing data landscape and be alert to new tools and challenges. You must be aware of ever-evolving privacy regulations and security threats, which may appear from anywhere around the globe. What changes does 2022 hold? Here are four emerging trends that will shape the way companies approach data protection and management in the year ahead.

Catalogic Software (Ken Barth, CEO) In 2022, we expect cyber criminals to launch new supply chain ransomware attacks on cloud storage and cloud data protection vendors in a similar one-to-many fashion to propagate malware to cloud storage systems. This is an escalation of ransomware attacks from a focus on primary data centers to the suppliers of data protection and cloud storage systems. A cyber resilient data management strategy includes not only securing your primary data, but also safeguarding your backup data sets, whether on site, on tape, in a public cloud, or in a backup vendor’s cloud repository.

FalconStor (Chris Cummings, VP of Marketing) 2021 was a year when IT groups tried to cope with and overcome COVID amplified IT challenges, adopted new cloud technologies and crossed their fingers in hopes that ransomware wouldn't invade their ranks. As 2022 arrives, IT groups will stare down the need to rationalize their new services and existing data center operations, get more aggressive on the security front, and find new sources for IT talent lost, setting up a number of potential winners for 2022. Managed Services Providers - Corporate IT will continue the major outsourcing push it started in 2020 when COVID kicked IT "out of the building" and completely took over data protection with Backup-as-a-Service and DR-as-a-Service offerings. Companies need help since many employees are still working from home while hiring new employees is getting harder and harder, so the relationships with MSPs will become more important. This will be even more urgent in specialized technology areas such as IBM and Power Systems, tape systems, and mainframe.021 saw many notable attacks, 2016 is widely regarded as the year of ransomware, and 2022 will set the new mark, bringing data protection and recoverability technologies into greater focus. Along with remote work, we saw an increase need for security and data protection at a global level and that will continue in 2022 as remote work is here to stay.

Fujifilm Recording Media USA (R. Gadomski) Increasing Focus on IT Energy Consumption According to the United Nations, irreversible damage has already been done to the environment as a result of greenhouse gas emissions. Wall Street will increasingly demand sustainability reporting and action. Chief Sustainability Officers will put pressure on energy intensive IT operations, requiring use of renewables and energy conservation measures. Research shows that 81% of CIOs would consider alternative data storage options that are more cost-effective and sustainable. This will set the stage for new tape system deployments that can reduce TCO by more than 70% and reduce CO2 emissions by 95% compared to traditional HDD storage. Return to Hybrid Cloud Strategies COVID 19 created short term storage strategies often favoring a flight to cloud. However, long term thinking will favor hybrid cloud strategies where the best of public cloud plus on-prem private cloud provides maximum flexibility and value. This will especially apply to data accessibility, regulatory requirements, data governance, and cybercrime risks including ransomware. Today’s modern automated tape solutions will provide the necessary benefits of cost, scalability, reliability and data protection to support this model. Storage Optimization Will Be Key to Data Growth Management With the continuing digital transformation comes the zettabyte age of storage where data to be stored globally will approach 6.0 zettabytes (ZB) in 2022 according to a leading IT industry analyst. Just one ZB would require 55 million 18.0 TB HDDs or 55 million 18.0 TB LTO-9 cartridges. Storage optimization, that is to say, getting the right data, in the right place, at the right time, and at the right cost will be critical for competitive advantage. Intelligent data management that leverages multiple tiers of storage, active archiving and innovative S3-compatible archive solution for object storage using tape will be required to effectively manage data that will only increase in value.

Point Software and Systems (Thomas Thalmann, CEO) Object storage with integrated tiering and HSM functionality Object storage systems based on more than one storage technology (e.g. HDD and tape) and integrating intelligent HSM functions will become interesting for use cases where huge amounts of object data have to be stored and kept for the long term. Internal tiering algorithms will ensure that objects are automatically moved and/or replicated between the different storage tiers. Removable storage media against ransomware Due to the increasing number of cybercrime attacks, off-line media providing a true "air gap" such as tape and optical, will gain in importance. The replication of productive on-line data to off-line media using appropriate replication software will provide an additional layer of protection to ensure recovery after a ransomware attack.

Quantum (Tim Sherbak, Product Marketing Manager) Large enterprises, cloud-scale solution providers, research facilities, and government agencies will increasingly turn to online, tape-based solutions for storage. Emerging cold storage architectures and services will become more popular due to its high-performance access and simpler cost models. Architectures based on RAIL (Redundant Array of Independent Libraries) will finally hit their stride in 2022 due to advances in multi-dimensional erasure coding technologies specifically optimized for tape library characteristics.

Diana Salazar, Product Marketing Manager The focus of securing endpoints will shift to backup infrastructures and will be a key differentiator between those who pay ransom (and lose customer trust and revenue) and those who don’t. Offline storage, aka tape, will increase its presence in 2022 as a viable, cost-effective solution and pairing to cloud when leveraged on prem for ransomware recovery. Companies will begin to utilize secondary storage tiers for unstructured data to enhance application performance and free up space in the primary storage tier, while still keeping the unstructured data protected and accessible.

JG Heithcock, GM, Retrospect a StorCentric company In 2022, with ransomware continuing to grow as a threat, data protection will become the most indispensable component of every organization’ digital transformation strategy Today, more than ever, data can be lost by accident, damaged by a natural disaster, or fall victim to cybercrime.In 2022, the 3-2-1 backup rule will continue to be the golden rule of complete data protection This means that organizations will keep three copies of data saved across at least two media types, with one more copy saved offsite. In 2022, ROI will also remain the name of the game, so organizations will seek a proven solution that makes this easy and affordable to implement. The ideal backup solution will enable a backup script to a local destination and a backup transfer script to an offsite target. Using a transfer script to copy backups to a second location enables the administrator to perform the operation offline, without the original source needing to be used. In 2022, there will be various options available for implementing 3-2-1 workflows The options include, 1.) disk and cloud – i.e., combining local disks and cloud storage locations; 2.) network-attached storage (NAS) and cloud – i.e., onsite NAS and offsite cloud; and 3.) disk and tape – i.e., local disk and a tape library for offsite storage. In 2022, going beyond the 3-2-1 backup rule will provide organizations with extra insurance to protect their digital transformation initiatives Organizations can choose to utilize a second cloud storage location (i.e., 3-2-2 strategy) or NAS, tape and/or cloud (i.e., 3-3-2 strategy) for added redundancy. In 2022, utilizing WORM storage in the cloud with immutable backups will provide the best protection against ransomware attacks With a locked backup, malware cannot delete your critical data, enabling the administrator to recover if the worst does happen. By combining the 3-2-1 backup with immutable backups in the cloud, administrators can ensure their organization’s data is protected against the latest threat landscape.

Contact your BackupWorks Account rep today and ask about "Air-Gap" Tape Backup and archive at 866 801 2944