News in the Channel - issue #44

B A C K UCPYABSE RA SSEENRTVRI CI QE

A cyberattack on a business’ systems is the stuff of managing directors’ nightmares, be they in charge of a multinational corporation or a local business. The effects can be disastrous, especially if the attack locks them out of their systems and data. While cybersecurity is a priority for businesses, many are also now paying attention to having effective backups to mitigate the effects should an attack occur, and backup as a service (BaaS) is growing quickly as a result. “Most businesses already have backups. The real question is whether they can recover, and how quickly,” says Gary McLeish, head of sales at Converged Solutions Group. “The global BaaS market is growing and expecting to reach around $14 billion in 2026 and to roughly double to $28.5 billion by 2032, according to a report by Research and Markets. Growth is being driven by rising ransomware threats, a shift from capital spending to operational spending, and fast growth in data from SaaS applications. “In the UK, the threats are increasing: 43% of UK businesses reported a cyber breach or attack in the past 12 months, rising to 65% of medium and 69% of large businesses.” Alex Walsh, RVP channel, EMEA North at Keepit, notes that BaaS is moving from a specialist IT purchase to a broader business priority. “Gartner predicts that 75% of enterprises will prioritise SaaS application backup as a critical requirement by 2028, compared with around 15% today,” he adds. “This reflects how backup has evolved: first protecting against data loss, then enabling rapid recovery, supporting cyber resilience and, increasingly, providing trusted data for AI- driven operations.” Stew Parkin, global CTO at Assured Data Protection, says the growth in demand for BaaS is driven by several factors. “Ransomware remains a major

concern, while AI is increasing the speed and sophistication of threats,” he adds. “At the same time, IT teams are managing growing volumes of data and increasingly complex environments, often without additional resources. “The ongoing shortage of RAM and other hardware is adding further pressure. AI infrastructure is consuming huge amounts of compute and memory, contributing to higher hardware prices, longer lead times and greater procurement uncertainty. “These factors are accelerating the shift towards managed backup. Rather than investing upfront in dedicated infrastructure and managing it themselves, organisations can access enterprise-grade protection as an operational service, with the technology, monitoring and expertise included.” Why BaaS There are various security and storage options available, but BaaS has advantages. Alex notes that storage provides capacity, whereas BaaS provides protection and recoverability. “It helps businesses maintain a known-good copy of their information and restore operations following accidental deletion, platform disruption, ransomware or another incident,” he adds. “A managed service can also give smaller organisations access to resilience capabilities they may struggle to build internally. Increasingly, backup can provide an append-only record that helps organisations verify whether data has changed before using it within AI systems.” Dan Allenby, head of managed services at Rebura, a Westcon-Comstor company and specialist AWS consultancy and solution provider, notes that backup and storage solve different problems. “Simply having another copy of data does not necessarily mean an organisation can recover a service quickly following

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The global BaaS market is growing and expecting to reach around $14 billion in 2026 and to roughly double to $28.5 billion by 2032, according to a report by Research and Markets. Growth is being driven by rising ransomware threats, a shift

from capital spending to operational

spending, and fast growth in data from SaaS applications.

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