2023 Facts and 2024 Predictions

This article was written by Sergei Serdyuk, co-founder and VP of product management, Nakivo, Inc. 

 
2023 Facts and 2024 Predictions

2023 Facts

• Increased data protection requirements of hybrid IT environments
  The challenge of ensuring data protection and data recovery for new platforms and technologies, while at the same time avoiding complexity, was a major focus for organisations in 2023. Organisations then had to contend with the additional challenges of finding streamlined and efficient solutions for protecting complex infrastructure models. Despite the significant boost in performance as a result of adopting HCI and hybrid cloud, these approaches also added complexity to IT infrastructure. 
• Need for data protection solutions at the edge able to tackle compliance
  In 2023, the issue of data sprawl and its associated security risks were very much at play, encouraging organisations to make the shift towards scalable data protection solutions. With the growth and benefits of edge computing, organisations were faced with increased complexity in ensuring data protection, and more stringent compliance. This highlights a continuing demand for data protection solutions able to adequately meet increasing regulatory requirements. 
• Rise of STaaS to simplify hybrid cloud
  Hybrid cloud was very much a dominant trend in 2023, which shows no signs of abating. New implementations arose to manage organisations’ storage assets more effectively, assisting organisations in taking advantage of cloud benefits on-premises. A trend emerged of STaaS offerings from big vendors to simplify this hybrid model. As STaaS offerings develop, cost will be a deciding factor for customers as data volumes grow. 

2024 Predictions 

• Focus on the importance of data protection in cloud
  Though 2024 will see greater recognition on the part of organisations in taking responsibility for the protection of their own data in the cloud, more awareness about cloud service provider shared responsibility models will be necessary. Legal compliance will be a key motivator; while strict data protection, retention and privacy laws will necessitate the safeguarding of data in the cloud. Rising cybersecurity concerns and cloud-specialised ransomware variants will help drive cloud data protection efforts. Increased complexity will continue to be a major challenge in hybrid cloud infrastructure, leading to higher data sprawl, security risks and resource waste.
• A ramping up of defense tactics to maintain BC
  To maintain business continuity in 2024, more than ever, IT administrators will need to rely on data protection solutions with ransomware-proof backup and instant recovery capabilities. Regularly-testing incident response and DR plans, while implementing the zero-trust security approach – will be critical tactics in data protection, as well as infrastructure monitoring will be high on the agenda, with effective log management and security tools, such as, firewalls, intrusion detection, etc. Consolidated data management, monitoring and protection solutions will be essential to navigate complex IT setups. 
• Increased data visibility and control driven by legislation
  To address growing data loss and sovereignty concerns, hyperscalers should introduce new regions for their services. Cloud providers will adopt more transparent governance tools that give customers increased control and visibility over their data. New GDPR-inspired legislation will emerge around the world, with new laws in countries like China, Singapore, India and South Africa. Digital privacy acts will be the next step in EU data governance legislation. AI will have a major impact on data privacy, with LLMs (large language models) like ChatGPT posing novel risks.