The SaaS Backup and Recovery Report 2022: What’s New in the SaaS Universe

The SaaS Backup and Recovery Report 2022 from Spanning provides new insights into the SaaS universe, the current state of SaaS data protection and what you should know to enhance your data protection strategy.

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) has experienced significant growth in the last few years. The increased demand for communication and collaboration tools due to remote working has accelerated SaaS adoption even further. Globally, SaaS revenue is witnessing a 20% growth every year and is projected to reach $300 billion by 2024. SaaS is especially popular among organizations looking for easily accessible, flexible, hassle-free and cost-effective business solutions.

The SaaS Backup and Recovery Report 2022 from Spanning provides new insights into the SaaS universe, the current state of SaaS data protection and what you should know to enhance your data protection strategy. This report also explores the top IT priorities for businesses in 2022, what organizations look for in an IT vendor, the biggest risks businesses face today and why SaaS data backup is crucial for mid-market enterprises (MMEs).

For the purpose of this report, we surveyed thousands of IT leaders across four continents and gathered responses from several industry verticals like Technology and Software, Education, Not-For-Profit, Construction, Manufacturing, Consulting and Professional Services, Retail, Transportation, Healthcare, Finance, Insurance and Real Estate.

Key findings

Here are three key findings from the report:

• Backup and disaster recovery emerged as the top IT priority for businesses in 2022: As of 2021, around 50% of all corporate data was stored in the cloud. As reliance on SaaS applications continues to grow, it will hold even greater volumes of sensitive business and customer information. A majority of respondents (80%) cited backup and disaster recovery as the top IT priority in their organization.
• Cybersecurity is the greatest IT risk for organizations today: The year 2021 has been a record-breaking year for cyberattacks, with businesses worldwide experiencing 50% more attacks per week compared to 2020. About 55% of respondents mentioned cybersecurity as the greatest IT risk their organizations face today.
• Risk mitigation is the top driver for having a SaaS backup: SaaS data loss could occur due to human error, malicious insider action or cyberattacks. The effects of such incidents could have catastrophic consequences on any business, large and small. More than 50% of IT leaders surveyed said SaaS backup is crucial to reducing risks associated with unforeseen disruptive incidents.

Detailed findings

Let’s take a look at some of the major highlights from the report:

Top three IT priorities for businesses in 2022

With the frequency of cyberattacks as well as the cost of data breaches increasing drastically, businesses must revamp their IT strategies to survive and thrive in 2022 and beyond. Here are our respondents’ top three picks:

1. Backup and disaster recovery: About 80% of respondents cited backup and disaster recovery as a major priority for IT departments this year.
2. Improving cybersecurity mesh: Nearly 70% of IT leaders said that they are focused on improving cybersecurity mesh across their organization to secure digital assets such as data, devices and applications.
3. Improving data fabric: Almost 40% of respondents selected improving data fabric across their business as another top mission-critical priority in 2021.

Key IT vendor criteria that matter to MMEs

IT vendors have been instrumental in supporting remote work environments, enabling companies to maintain business continuity as well as keeping the workforce secure and productive. As businesses look to emerge from the economic slowdown due to COVID-19, they expect IT vendors to act as a business partner rather than just being a technology consultant or provider of IT services.

In this regard, we asked our respondents what key criteria they look for in an IT vendor. Here are the top three:

1. Easy access to support: More than 30% of all respondents cited “easy access to support” as the top IT vendor attribute that makes doing business with them easy.
2. Ability to self-serve: Nearly 25% of respondents listed “ability to self-serve” as another important IT vendor criteria.
3. Dedicated account manager: About 20% of respondents said having a “dedicated account manager” makes collaborating with an IT vendor seamless.

Greatest risks organizations face today

Competition, changing market conditions, client attrition and failure to innovate are just some of the risks businesses face every day. Human error, malicious insider threats and rampant cyberattacks are contributing to a growing number of risks that threaten to disrupt business operations and damage an organization’s reputation. Organizations must constantly evolve and adapt to overcome these challenges and thrive in today’s unpredictable business landscape.

We asked our respondents what their organization’s biggest risk is in 2022. Listed below are the biggest concerns for businesses today:

1. Cybersecurity: More than 50% of respondents revealed that their organization’s biggest risk in 2022 is cybersecurity.
2. Backup and recovery: Nearly 15% of respondents cited backup and recovery as a major cause for concern associated with IT.
3. Compliance: For 10% of respondents, compliance is the greatest risk to their organization.

Top drivers for backing up SaaS data

Organizations of all sizes are rapidly adopting cloud platforms to improve efficiency, agility and collaboration. Almost 70% of organizations currently using cloud services plan to increase their cloud spending. Today, SaaS applications hold large volumes of mission-critical business data and customer-sensitive information. Therefore, having a copy of mission-critical SaaS data securely backed up and protected is critical for the survival of an organization.

Here are the top reasons for backing up SaaS data from our survey report:

1. Reduce risk: More than 50% of respondents in our survey highlighted backing up SaaS data as a necessary step to minimize the risk of data loss and downtime.
2. Protect against user error: Nearly 20% of respondents said they rely on SaaS backup to protect their business and data against human mistakes.
3. Ransomware: Our survey found that more than 15% of MMEs utilize SaaS backup to mitigate risks associated with ransomware attacks.

SaaS backup and recovery is critical for MMEs

According to Check Point Research, businesses worldwide experienced 50% more attacks per week in 2021 compared to 2020. In today’s always-on, data-driven business landscape, there is no room for data loss and downtime. To maintain business continuity and stay competitive, organizations must ensure their SaaS data is securely backed up and available for recovery if the need arises.

When asked about the criticality of having a SaaS backup, nearly 90% of MMEs said SaaS backup is highly critical for their business. Only about 7% of respondents don’t consider SaaS backup as critical.

Top three SaaS solutions for MMEs

The 2020 State of SaaSOps report reveals that businesses today use an average of 80 IT-sanctioned apps, and 70% of the business apps they use are SaaS-based. SaaS solutions have changed the way companies access, store and share information, and are now an integral part of modern business.

We asked our respondents what other SaaS applications they would like to have backup and recovery for. More than half of the respondents (75%) said Microsoft 365 followed by Google Workspace (42%) and Salesforce (40%).

Backup and disaster recovery: Top priority for businesses in 2022

With the frequency of cyberattacks and cost of data breaches increasing significantly, IT professionals and security experts now have an enormous task of keeping SaaS-based solutions secure while ensuring data and systems are available 24/7/365. Having a robust SaaS backup and disaster recovery solution is key to not only survive, but to also succeed in 2022 and beyond.

For more detailed insights on the current state of SaaS data protection and why SaaS data backup is crucial for mid-market enterprises, download your free copy of the 2022 Spanning SaaS Backup and Recovery Report.

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