Cautious About Spending? Be Even More Cautious With Your Data.

Own knows that data protection is business protection. Learn more about the Data Protection Imperative.

Just as consumers tend to tighten their wallets during times of economic uncertainty, businesses today are being extra prudent when deciding how to spend their money. Across the board, companies are being more cost-conscious and looking for opportunities to scale back. Even areas that aren't typically targets for budget cuts, like cybersecurity, may come under closer scrutiny.

It’s understandable that if you’ve never experienced a data breach or loss (that you’re aware of), you might be open to treating data protection with the same broad brush as the rest of your spend.  However, there are several reasons why investing more in data protection is a smart idea, especially now.

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Why its imperative to invest in data protection now

Your data will only keep growing

The amount of data companies store in the cloud continues to grow - and is showing no signs of stopping. Studies show that 86% of organizations expect at least 80% of their software to be delivered via the cloud by 2022.

These figures explain why a recent Forrester report states that organizations may actually be under-spending on cloud security. According to the report, given that 58% of organizations will have moved their application portfolios to a public cloud in the next two years, security teams need to spend more, given the percentage of workloads migrating to the cloud.

With so much data, companies need to be proactive. While a backup and recovery strategy is still a must, you also need a proactive data security solution to prevent incidents from happening in the first place.

Cost cutting in other areas increases the risk of data loss

Amid economic downturns, companies historically shift IT spending to outsourced services or lay off staff entirely. During the last major recession, outsourcing expenses as a percentage of total IT spending rose at the median from 3.8% in 2008 to 6.1% in 2009.

In terms of outsourcing, a greater reliance on external developers increases the risk of leaking sensitive data. According to the Ponemon Institute, 59% of companies report having a breach attributable to a third party.

With departing employees, the risk is more around malicious behavior. There is a one in three (37%) chance your company loses IP when an employee quits. Just as alarming is that 15% of employees say they are more likely to take company data if they are forced out of their job (fired or laid off) rather than leaving on their own.

Since any staff disruption increases the risk of errors that lead to data loss and knowing that human error is a leading cause of data loss, this is the time to invest in security capabilities that give you visibility into who has access to what data across your most critical systems.

It’s a growing priority for the board

As cybersecurity becomes more critical, boards of directors are becoming more vigilant in overseeing their companies’ cybersecurity efforts.

Part of the reason for this interest in cybersecurity is the potentially devastating impacts of an incident. The average cost of a data breach hit a record high of $4.35 million, a 13% increase in the last two years, according to the 2022 Cost of a Data Breach report. In addition, laws are holding board members personally liable for IT security breaches and ineffective security controls.

It's easy to see how failing to invest in data security can put your company at risk, as well as your highest-ranking executives.

The consequences of a data incident are magnified in a bad economy

When financial health is fragile, the penalties for a lack of compliance due to a data breach can be particularly damaging. Moreover, depending on the infraction, the potential costs of non-compliance can extend far beyond simple fines- organizations lose an average of $5.87M in revenue due to a single non-compliance event.

But the financial impacts aren’t the only consequence. 21% of people surveyed said they would stop doing business permanently with a company if they lost their customer’s trust. The last thing you need is damage to your brand reputation when there are pressures on meeting revenue goals. In addition, downtime for the sales or services functions puts revenue and customer satisfaction at risk when you can least afford those hits.

Having a way to automate data compliance and easily prove compliance to auditors is critical to saving you from high costs down the road.

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Invest in a cloud data protection partner you can trust

If you are going to invest in protecting your data, be sure you choose a solution that won’t give you buyer’s remorse. At Own, we address the unique pressures that organizations face today by helping them intelligently manage their SaaS data protection spending and reduce data risks without sacrificing their pace of innovation.

Own customers realize significant value by utilizing backup and recovery, sandbox seeding and data archiving solutions to manage and protect their business-critical data. In fact, according to a recent IDC study, Own customers have a 552% 3-year ROI on average and receive payback on their investment in just three months.

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