Market Research
Veeam Research Finds Organizations are Increasing Modern Data Protection for Cloud Workloads to Reduce Cyber Security Risks

Veeam Software has released the findings of the company’s Cloud Protection Trends Report 2023, covering four key “as a Service” scenarios: Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), Software as a Service (SaaS), and Backup and Disaster Recovery as a Service (BaaS/DRaaS). The survey found that companies are recognizing the increasing need to protect their SaaS environments. For example, nearly 90% of Microsoft® 365 customers surveyed use supplemental measures rather than relying solely on built-in recovery capabilities. Preparing for a rapid recovery from cyber and ransomware attacks was the top cited reason for this backup, with regulatory compliance as the next most popular business driver.
Highlights of the report:
- While new IT workloads are launching in the cloud at far faster rates than old workloads are being decommissioned in the data center, a surprising 88% brought workloads from the cloud back to their data center for one or more reasons, including development, cost/performance optimization, and disaster recovery.
- With cybersecurity (including ransomware) continuing to be a critical concern, data protection strategies have evolved, and most organizations are delegating backup responsibilities to specialists, instead of requiring each workload (IaaS, SaaS, PaaS) owner to protect their own data. The majority of backups of cloud workloads are now being done by the backup team and no longer require the specialized expertise or added burden of cloud administrators.
- Today, 98% of organizations utilize a cloud-hosted infrastructure as part of their data protection strategy. DRaaS is perceived as surpassing the tactical benefits of BaaS by providing expertise around Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery(BCDR) planning, implementation, and testing. Expertise is recognized as a primary differentiator by subscribers choosing their BaaS/DRaaS provider, based on business acumen, technical IT recovery architects, and operational assistance in planning and documentation of BCDR strategies.
- Unfortunately, as is often the case for new cloud-hosted architectures, some PaaS administrators are incorrectly presuming that the native durability of cloud-hosted services relieves the need for backup: 34% of organizations do not yet back up their cloud-hosted file shares, and 15% do not back up their cloud-hosted databases.
“The growing adoption of cloud-powered tools and services, escalated by the massive shift to remote work and current hybrid work environments, put a spotlight on hybrid IT and data protection strategies across industries,” said Danny Allan, CTO and Senior Vice President of Product Strategy at Veeam. “As cybersecurity threats continue to increase, organizations must look beyond traditional backup services and build a purposeful approach that best suits their business needs and cloud strategy. This survey shows that workloads continue to fluidly move from data centers to clouds and back again, as well as from one cloud to another — creating even more complexity in data protection strategy. The results of this survey show that while modern IT enterprises have made significant strides in cloud and data protection, there is still work to be done.”
The Veeam Cloud Protection Trends Report 2023 findings include:
Software as a Service (SaaS):
- 90% of organizations realize they need to back up Microsoft 365. The report revealed only 1 in 9 (11%) organizations do not protect their Microsoft 365 data — a promising majority of 89% use third-party backups/BaaS or enhanced tiers of Microsoft 365 for legal hold, or both.
- As data protection strategies have evolved and ransomware continues to be a top concern, most organizations are delegating backup responsibilities to backup specialists, instead of requiring each workload (IaaS, SaaS, PaaS) owner to protect their own data. This fuels the progression of backup becoming a conventional component tasked to the traditional backup admin versus the application team.
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): While organizations of all sizes now embrace hybrid-cloud architectures, it is not a one-way journey to the cloud that reduces the importance of the modern data center.
- 30% of cloud-hosted workloads were from “cloud first” strategies, whereby new workloads are starting in clouds at far faster rates than old workloads are being decommissioned in the data center.
- 98% of organizations utilize a cloud-hosted infrastructure as part of their data protection strategy, including cloud-storage tiers, cloud infrastructure as their disaster recovery site, or the use of BaaS/DRaaS providers.
- 88% of organizations brought workloads from the cloud back to their data center for one or more reasons (development, cost/performance optimization, or disaster recovery) — highlighting a need for 2023 data protection strategies to ensure consistent protection and the ability to migrate, as workloads move from the data center to cloud, cloud to the data center, or from one cloud to another cloud.
- The majority of backups of cloud workloads are now being done by the backup team and no longer require the specialized expertise or added burden of cloud administrators. However, while nearly every organization acknowledged having long-term regulatory mandates, only half of organizations retain backups of their cloud data for even one year.
Platform as a Service (PaaS): While most organizations initially “lift and shift” servers from the data center to IaaS, most agree that running foundational IT scenarios, such as file shares or databases, as native cloud services is the future for mature IT workloads:
- 76% run file services within cloud-hosted servers and 56% run managed file shares from AWS or Microsoft Azure
- 78% run databases within cloud-hosted servers and 65% run managed databases from AWS or Microsoft Azure
Backup and Disaster Recovery as a Service (BaaS/DRaaS): Nearly every IaaS/SaaS environment also utilizes cloud services as part of its data protection strategy in some form.
- 58% of organizations utilize managed backup (BaaS) compared to the 42% that utilize cloud storage as part of their self-managed data protection solution. Of special interest, nearly half(48%) started with self-managed cloud storage but eventually switched to BaaS.
- Nearly every organization (98%) claims to use cloud services as part of their data protection strategy, though that varies from cloud storage as a repository to full-fledged BaaS or DRaaS services.
- BaaS is predominantly sought for gaining operational and economic efficiencies, as well as assuring data survivability from disasters and ransomware attacks. It is notable that BaaS is no longer seen as the “tape killer” that early pundits offered, with organizations stating that nearly 50% of their data is still stored on tape during its lifecycle, regardless of their use of cloud-based data protection services.
- DRaaS is perceived as surpassing the tactical benefits of BaaS by providing expertise around BCDR planning, implementation, and testing. Expertise is perceived as a primary differentiator by subscribers choosing their BaaS/DRaaS provider, based on business acumen, technical IT recovery architects, and operational assistance in planning and documentation of BCDR strategies.
This year’s report showed a significant shift from last year as customers are increasingly interested in outsourcing their backups and gaining a “turnkey” or “white-glove” level of management service instead of the internal IT staff continuing to manage BaaS-delivered infrastructure. This shift indicates that experience and trust in providers are increasing and could also point to challenges over the past year with the IT talent supply chain.
The Veeam Cloud Protection Trends Report 2023, born from the annual Veeam Data Protection Trends Report, is the result of a third-party research firm that surveyed 1,700 unbiased IT leaders from 7 countries (US, UK, France, Germany, Japan, Australia, New Zealand) on their use of cloud services in both production and protection scenarios to deliver the largest single view into the trajectory of hybrid strategies across the modern IT enterprise in today’s cloud-first digital landscape. The broad-based market study was conducted to understand the various perspectives on responsibilities and methodologies related to operating and protecting cloud-hosted workloads, and considerations when using cloud-powered data protection.
Cyber Security
Axis Communications Sheds Light on Video Surveillance Industry Perspectives on AI

Axis Communications has published a new report that explores the state of AI in the global video surveillance industry. Titled The State of AI in Video Surveillance, the report examines the key opportunities, challenges and future trends, as well as the responsible practices that are becoming critical for organisations in their use of AI. The report draws insights from qualitative research as well as quantitative data sources, including in-depth interviews with carefully selected experts from the Axis global partner network.
A leading insight featured in the report is the unanimous view among interviewees that interest in the technology has surged over the past few years, with more and more business customers becoming curious and increasingly knowledgeable about its potential applications.

Mats Thulin, Director AI & Analytics Solutions at Axis Communications
“AI is a technology that has the potential to touch every corner and every function of the modern enterprise. That said, any implementations or integrations that aim to drive value come with serious financial and ethical considerations. These considerations should prompt organisations to scrutinise any initiative or investment. Axis’s new report not only shows how AI is transforming the video surveillance landscape, but also how that transformation should ideally be approached,” said Mats Thulin, Director AI & Analytics Solutions at Axis Communications.
According to the Axis report, the move by businesses from on-premise security server systems to hybrid cloud architectures continues at pace, driven by the need for faster processing, improved bandwidth usage and greater scalability. At the same time, cloud-based technology is being combined with edge AI solutions, which play a crucial role by enabling faster, local analytics with minimal latency, a prerequisite for real-time responsiveness in security-related situations.
By moving AI processing closer to the source using edge devices such as cameras, businesses can reduce bandwidth consumption and better support real-time applications like security monitoring. As a result, the hybrid approach is expected to continue to shape the role of AI in security and unlock new business intelligence and operational efficiencies.
A trend that is emerging among businesses is the integration of diverse data for a more comprehensive analysis, transforming safety and security. Experts predict that by integrating additional sensory data, such as audio and contextual environmental factors caught on camera, can lead to enhanced situational awareness and greater actionable insights, offering a more comprehensive understanding of events.
Combining multiple data streams can ultimately lead to improved detection and prediction of potential threats or incidents. For example, in emergency scenarios, pairing visual data with audio analysis can enable security teams to respond more quickly and precisely. This context-aware approach can potentially elevate safety, security and operational efficiency, and reflects how system operators can leverage and process multiple data inputs to make better-informed decisions.
According to the Axis report, interviewees emphasised that responsible AI and ethical considerations are critical priorities in the development and deployment of new systems, raising concerns about decisions potentially based on biased or unreliable AI. Other risks highlighted include those related to privacy violations and how facial and behavioural recognition could have ethical and legal repercussions.
As a result, a recurring theme among interviewees was the importance of embedding responsible AI practices early in the development process. Interviewees also pointed to regulatory frameworks, such as the EU AI Act, as pivotal in shaping responsible use of technology, particularly in high-risk areas. While regulation was broadly acknowledged as necessary to build trust and accountability, several interviewees also stressed the need for balance to safeguard innovation and address privacy and data security concerns.
“The findings of this report reflect how enterprises are viewing the trend of AI holistically, working to have a firm grasp of both how to use the technology effectively and understand the macro implications of its usage. Conversations surrounding privacy and responsibility will continue but so will the pace of innovation and the adoption of technologies that advance the video surveillance industry and lead to new and exciting possibilities,” Thulin added.
Cyber Security
Rising Cyber Insurance Pressures Push UAE Firms to Fix Identity Silos and AI Vulnerabilities

CyberArk has announced the release of the CyberArk 2025 Identity Security Landscape Report, a global survey revealing how organizations are inadvertently creating a new identity-centric attack surface through growing use of AI and cloud. The report shows that machine identities are mostly unknown and uncontrolled within organizations, while the primary roadblocks to Agentic AI adoption in the UAE involve security concerns around external manipulation and sensitive access, signposting the emergence of a new and potent identity security challenge.
“The race to embed AI into environments has inadvertently created a new set of identity security risks centered around the access of unmanaged and unsecured machine identities – and the privileged access of AI agents will represent an entirely new threat vector,” said Craig Harwood, Area VP for Africa and the Middle East at CyberArk. “For UAE organizations to stay resilient, CISOs and security leaders must modernize their identity security strategies to contend with a new and expanding attack surface characterized by the proliferation of identities with privileged access and made worse by damaging identity silos.”
‘Rise of the machines’ contributes to unsecured privilege sprawl: Machine identities, driven primarily by cloud and AI, now vastly outnumber human identities within organizations and nearly half have sensitive or privileged access. However, many enterprises leave both human and machine access to critical systems under-secured. There are 82 machine identities for every human in organizations worldwide.
In 92% of UAE organizations, the definition of a ‘privileged user’ applies solely to human identities – but 42% of machine identities have privileged or sensitive access. Fifty two percent do not have identity security controls in place to secure cloud infrastructure and workloads. Fifty four percent of UAE organizations experienced at least two successful identity-centric breaches in the past 12 months, ranging from supply chain attacks and compromised privileged access to identity and credential theft.
AI is everywhere and identity-centric agentic AI risk looms: Sanctioned and unsanctioned adoption of AI and large language models (LLMs) is simultaneously transforming organizations while amplifying cybersecurity risks. Concerns around the emergence of AI agents in the UAE and their privileged access underscores the urgency for targeted identity security investment. AI will drive the creation of the greatest number of new identities with privileged and sensitive access in 2025.
Only eighteen percent of UAE organizations have identity security controls for AI in place. Sixty percent cannot secure shadow AI usage in their organization. AI agent adoption roadblocks include manipulation and sensitive access concerns. Complexity and identity silos are overwhelming security leaders and undermining business resilience: Fragmented identity security programs and poor environmental visibility are diminishing resilience in the face of evolving cybersecurity threats. Most organizations face increased privilege-related compliance pressure.
Seventy percent of UAE respondents say identity silos are a root cause of organizational cybersecurity risk. Sixty eight percent of security professionals in the UAE agree that their organizations prioritize business efficiencies over robust cybersecurity. Human and machine identities – many of them with privileged access – are expected to double in 2025. Ninety percent of UAE organizations are under increased pressure from insurers mandating enhanced privilege controls.
CyberArk is also participating at GISEC Global 2025, taking place from 6–8 May at the Dubai World Trade Centre. The company will be present at the HELP AG stand, where it will host a dedicated pod showcasing its latest cybersecurity solutions and discuss the Identity Security Landscape report. Attendees will have the opportunity to engage directly with CyberArk’s leadership, including Craig Harwood, Vice President for Middle East and Africa, and Laurence Elbana, Director of Sales, who will be available throughout the event.
Market Research
SoftServe Study: 58% of Leaders Report Companies Using Inaccurate Data for Big Decisions

SoftServe has released survey results on the state of data management in 2025, unveiling significant benefits of strong data foundations while exposing the widespread deficits in data maturity affecting most businesses. The majority of the 750 business leaders surveyed barely grasp the value of their data as 65% of all respondents believe no one at their organization understands all the data collected and how to access it. Further, 58% say key business decisions are based on inaccurate or inconsistent data – most of the time, if not always – raising concerns for companies across industries and borders.
This study, commissioned by SoftServe and conducted by Wakefield Research, assesses data readiness in enterprises by the degree of data quality, strategy, organization, investment, and governance implemented. Responses indicate a lack of knowledge in data management is coupled with an internal disconnect and noticeable divide between the C-suite, VPs, and senior management, putting entire organizations at odds when it comes to how data is used, acquired, and funded.
Key survey findings include:
- Outdated or Misaligned Strategies: Many think it’s time to hit ‘refresh’ on their data strategy as 73% report major updates or a complete overhaul is needed, and nearly all (98%) believe an updated data strategy would be required for strategic initiatives like Gen AI.
- Leadership Divide: While less visibility among leaders can lead to skewed perceptions of data comprehension, the division grows with 78% of VPs and 61% of directors — but just 44% of those at C-level — claim their organization’s investment priorities are negatively impacted by leaders not fully understanding how data can generate value.
- Data on Demand: For 60%, decision-makers getting access to data when they need it is a challenge – and one that may not be an easy fix, as the majority (51%) of the 58% whose organization makes most or all decisions using inaccurate or inconsistent data now believe a significant increase in data management investment is needed to meet their goals.
- Misallocated Investments: Nearly three-fourths (73%) believe poor prioritization has diverted needed funds and talent away from valuable data projects to broad Gen AI initiatives with weaker ROI.
All deficits aside, the survey results include a silver lining: strong data management has allowed organizations to open new revenue streams (44%) or monetize their data (38%) with the right infrastructure and governance to transform information into a vital source of income. Organizations also attributed increases in productivity and efficiency (54%), as well as improved decision-making and forecasting abilities (49%), to having strong data foundations. Most respondents hope to follow suit this year as the bulk (85%) prepare to slightly or significantly increase their data budget and nearly half (42%) of those with a fully mature data strategy expect to significantly increase their overall data investments.
“An impactful data strategy is not about perfection, but prioritization,” said Rodion Myronov, AVP of Technology at SoftServe. “It’s about gaining maturity where it matters most for your business by prioritizing the missing piece of the whole data puzzle, not tossing it aside for the next shiny new toy. Establishing a mature data strategy helps reinforce organizational foundations, so you can pursue bigger and better puzzles and projects in the future.”
Survey respondents included 750 business or technology leaders responsible for data management or AI use at global companies spanning eight countries and eight industries with $1 billion or more in annual revenue.
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