Data protection has become a minefield. The 2024 Dell Global Data Protection Index shows most organisations suffered disruptions last year, and IT leaders are sweating about what’s coming next.

Their biggest worry? Meeting backup and recovery deadlines when disaster strikes — 60% admit they’re not confident they can pull it off.

Attacks multiply, defences lag

Cyberattacks now prevent data access at unprecedented rates. More than half of IT decision-makers report their organisations have been hit in the past year, and the financial damage keeps mounting.

Ransomware leads the charge among various attack types. Critical business data sits exposed because yesterday’s backup methods don’t cut it anymore.

Rethinking protection entirely

Standard disaster recovery assumes your backups remain untouched, but cyber resiliency knows better. Multiple security layers — both physical and logical — create genuine data protection at every level imaginable.

Zero Trust principles reshape everything about IT security. You’re not shopping for products anymore; you’re fundamentally changing how your entire technology ecosystem operates and interacts.

Making it happen

Alignment across your organisation comes first — boardroom executives and IT teams need a shared understanding about resources, timelines, and realistic budgets. Without consensus, projects stall and expectations clash.

Recovery speed after an attack depends entirely on available expertise. Some organisations build these skills internally; others recognise the value of experienced partners who’ve seen it all before.

Dell’s PowerProtect advantage

Performance improvements tell only part of the PowerProtect story — yes, backups run 38% faster and restores complete 45% quicker. Deduplication hitting 65:1 helps too, but these numbers miss the bigger picture.

What matters? PowerProtect strips away complexity from data protection while keeping costs down and SLAs intact, giving executives one less thing to worry about.

Security that goes deeper

Storing backup copies in a safe location barely scratches the surface of PowerProtect Cyber Recovery. Data gets isolated, locked against tampering, and constantly checked for corruption — absolute protection, not just storage.

Air-gapped on-premises vaults offer maximum control. Colocation facilities provide flexibility, while public cloud deployments deliver speed — each path offers genuine isolation when attackers strike.

AI changes everything

Most organisations (52%) see generative AI strengthening their cybersecurity posture, which sounds promising. But here’s the catch — 88% also recognise that AI creates massive new data volumes needing protection.

Multicloud environments and hybrid operations already stretch security teams thin. AI’s dual nature as both defender and potential vulnerability adds another layer of complexity that nobody fully understands yet.

Your move to cyber resiliency

Crown jewels first — identify the data, applications, and infrastructure your business absolutely cannot lose. Figure out acceptable recovery times before an attack forces those decisions under pressure.

Cyber resilience expertise might not exist in your current team, and that’s fine. Dell’s partner network helps organisations build appropriate defences without reinventing the wheel.