By Jason Sin, Synology Malaysia Country Manager
With the continuous expansion of the Digital Era, demand for backup solutions has grown as well and is now more critical than ever. As such, all businesses must secure their data and ensure they are easy to manage and access so they can quickly recover and maintain business continuity from potential cyber-attacks, hardware failure, or operational error.
For those who understand the importance of data backup and have moved to implement, there is a very common practice that is cited as the go-to for data backup protocols – the “3-2-1 Backup Rule”. It basically suggests that there must be at least three copies of data stored in two different formats, with one being stored off-site.
While this is the basis for a solid foundation in backup management, it may not always be practical or feasible for businesses.
Data Backups – Is It Necessary?
The 3-2-1 Backup Rule is widely used as a guideline across various sectors, has its own set of challenges – operating cost. For many small-sized businesses and micro entrepreneurs, implementing data backup systems can be expensive as it needs:
Specific and specialised hardware
Storage platform with regulatory controls
Strategically trained personnel that will manage data backups
According to one new report from TechTarget – “The 3-2-1 Backup Rule is a time-tested data protection and recovery methodology for ensuring that data is protected adequately.” Even so, another 2022 posting from TechTarget also highlighted how this industry gold standard for data backups, while proven to be effective, has not been immune from rising costs.
This is parallel to rising demand for data protection over the last 24 months. In fact, Gartner had predicted how 75% of large enterprises operating globally will prioritise backup functions by 2028. This will impact investments for cloud computing in public and private sectors; data centre deployments; and next-gen backup innovations.
For businesses, prioritising practicality for an office's data protection plan is crucial – that means identifying a suitable solution is paramount. As such, businesses are seeking out the best ways to implement data protection strategies, specifically those that can deploy seamlessly and as swiftly as possible.
Why Do Malaysia MSMEs Not Consider Data Backups?
While data management and backup trends around the world are now a critical focus for businesses of all sizes, not all of them feel they need total solutions for data backups and have only implemented the concept to some degree. This is the very scenario that businesses in Malaysia, which has an estimate of 90% of its economy being micro enterprises and SMBs, is now in as many businesses want to access the rapidly expanding digital economy, but do not data backups as critical.
For many, cost is the biggest hurdle. Tightening budgets are forcing businesses to reconsider their operational investments. Currently most believe data backups are secondary as they are known to be notoriously expensive due to highly priced infrastructure costs, recurring software licensing fees, and do not directly contribute to sales revenues.
As businesses now contend with hybrid working options, their data are scattered across different platforms and devices. This decentralisation will increase operational risks, such as unsupervised data migration and non-compliances.
While these are essentials that businesses must consider, about 77% of Malaysian-based SMBs are at the basic stage of digitisation. Even so, data backups will be a main growth thrust as new digital-first and innovation-driven policies have been implemented, which indicates the urgency of adopting user-friendly data management and protection solutions.
As is, Malaysia's digital economy is projected to contribute RM100 billion to the country’s economy by 2025. As such, SMBs must consider digitising their operations and even look into backups as a core function.
Focusing on Compatibility, Capacity, and Value
With proper planning, building a reliable backup system doesn’t have to be complicated. As is, businesses have the option to put together an IT team or outsource the entire process to simplify their backup functions, ensure they can scale easily, and securely integrate operations across platforms.
Take for instance, Malaysia-based D Swim Academy and how it optimised the management of its user data. As it experienced rapid growth for student applications, D Swim Academy saw a significant increase in operational data. That led to the outpacing of its current data management capacity that its existing data storage systems offer.
D Swim Academy quickly realized it needed a robust data management solution.
Even more critical is the way this expansion is wide-reaching as it grew its operations across Malaysia. As D Swim Academy continued to grow, it needed more licenses for productivity tools, cyber-security, and data backup systems.
As the digital economy continues to expand, data backup solution providers are looking beyond these key focuses, as they want to enable business to adapt, grow, and thrive in the digital era. Current and new features that they offer ensure operational continuity can be delivered with minimal downtime, malicious cyber-threats can be mitigated, and ongoing development and implementation of next-gen digital innovations will continue to be a key focus.
With next-gen innovations in data management and backup services now being deployed, business do not have to consider endpoint requirements and software compatibility. In fact, these service providers now even offer hybrid platforms, featuring a mix of on-site, off-site, and cloud solutions that enable data backups across multiple systems and infrastructure.
There are proprietary innovations that enhance these high-performance data storage and backup solutions. Among the many that various vendors offer, some of the stand-outs include centralised backup appliances, scalable deduplications, and changed block tracking.
These innovations are included in the advanced capabilities that Synology offers, ensuring SMBs can deploy high performance data management capabilities.
Backup is Not Hard: Deployment Planning based on Operational Capacity
Let’s focus on the practicality of data storage – what is considered as ideal for SMBs?
Here are three recommendations to consider for different usage scenarios:
1) Smaller-sized businesses and startups
Let’s start from smaller-sized businesses, such as startups and those with around 30 employees. This includes those that are rapidly scaling up like D Swim Academy, as it now manages 120 employees in 11 branches across Malaysia.
These companies require endpoint protection and digital backup capabilities to safeguard its data; manage it on-site or, if necessary, off-site; and operate with at-office and remote-working staff. There is also the need to manage data storage scalability to accommodate future growth needs.
Given that businesses usually do not have IT personnel to formulate comprehensive backup strategies, a data backup solution compatible with cloud storage would be reasonably suited for basic data management tasks. This will address the need for a speedy deployment that can scale accordingly.
In the case of D Swim Academy, it managed to streamline its data management functions and long-term expenses after working with Synology to deploy the necessary backup solutions it needed to manage its growing operational data. Beyond having better oversight with its data-sets and digital assets, D Swim Academy also reduced its storage footprint and saved up to 7.3TB of data holdings.
Working closely with Synology also enabled D Swim Academy to optimize its time and data management capabilities, specifically can save time on software license management and renewals.
Using a platform solution that offers automatic backup and hybrid protection capabilities; recurring software license fees; and centralised data management, will enable small-sized entrepreneurs to properly protect their data and digital infrastructure. More importantly, they can access data backup functions in a cost-effective and scalable manner.
2) Medium-sized businesses
For companies with a workforce of 200 or more, the deployment approach must also consider additional operational factors. This includes using advanced digital infrastructure, such as virtual machines, and needing faster network speeds and greater storage capacities.
SMBs with larger operational needs are likely to have an established IT team that manages data management and backup tasks. While having that in place will ensure operations are streamlined, there will be other processes and tasks to consider. This includes cross-platform deployment, managing maintenance across different protocols, and data protection and compliant processes.
As data centre deployments become an economic driver for Malaysia, SMBs that are scaling or have expansion plans already set their sights on being a part of this growth trend. This includes capacity building and operational scaling with the development and rollout of artificial intelligence advancements, cyber-security, and data analytics.
With high-performance and robust digital platforms and tech infrastructure, SMBs that are scaling can quickly implement a central management portal for its data-sets and digital assets. This allows businesses to deploy only the digital services that are needed at each branch.
3) Large-scale businesses
For businesses that operate on a wider scale and bandwidth, such as medium-sized enterprises and large corporates, they have more varied data management and protection needs.
With a workforce size of approximately 1,000 employees or more, these larger operations contend with similar data processing demands and other critical painpoints. Beyond needing to manage more devices, operational infrastructure, and multiple data storage capacities, they must have instant operational recovery planning in place; protocols and processes that ensure minimal downtime; and wider protective measures for users, devices, and systems.
With these massive demands, similar to what Kajima Malaysia – the local branch of a global construction and engineering firm – faced when managing large volumes of data-sets and digital assets, it is crucial that a centralised data management system is in place.
Having engaged Synology, Kajima Malaysia deployed an integrated data management system that addresses long-standing needs for its staff, partners, and clients: easily accessible data, optimised workflow and data processing; and end-to-end protection that offers zero-compromise on user privacy and operational recovery.
As an operation with global presence, collaborations outside of local borders are expected to be the norm. Beyond streamlining the management of its scattered and siloed data-sets and backups, Kajima Malaysia also optimised its workflow capabilities across all office branches, work-sites, and remote working locations. This includes providing seamless access and collaborative capabilities between its Malaysian main branch; project locations in Malaysia and across the world; and between regional offices.
Kajima Malaysia engaged with Synology to achieve the following - centralise the management of its data-sets and digital assets; improve workflow and usage resources for its workforce; and deploy on-site and cloud-based storage and backup controls.
The results include providing instant access to data for its workforce and partners whenever they need it; deploying a secured and versatile platform that ensures the stored data is available on approved platforms and devices; and ensuring Kajima Malaysia has 100% data ownership over its self-hosted file-sharing platform.
Next-Gen Data Management Trends
With how data consumption continues to grow at a rapid rate and data-sets are also expanding at a similar pace, it is clear that even more volumes of data will be generated. It is very important that businesses deploy a solution that is supportive of its operations and growth.
Synology, with its robust backup solutions, can help businesses better manage these growth trends and, on a wider scale, capability for expansion, cost effective solution for SMBs and the digital economy. After all, having a holistic and well tested backup plan ensures data stays safe and recoverable from a cyber-attack or data loss.
Jason serves as the Malaysia Country Manager at Synology, where he leads sales strategy and business development efforts. With technical acumen and a data-driven approach to Malaysia market, his leadership has been key in navigating Malaysia’s competitive market, and reinforcing Synology’s position as a leading provider of cutting-edge solutions in the region.
This content is provided by D&P Process Services Sdn Bhd
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.
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