Where Modern Data Management is Headed in 2021

By members of the Cohesity team

Calling 2020 tumultuous could be an extreme understatement for many midsize and enterprise organizations, but one area that continued to grow in importance during a very challenging year is modern data management. Throughout the year, the need for organizations to get more value from data and to ensure that data was backed and protected remained paramount, especially as the number ransomware attacks skyrocketed in 2020. The global pandemic gave enterprises a clear view of the advantages that blending cloud technologies into existing operations can have on organizations that are looking for increased agility, flexibility and optimized TCO.

We believe the events of 2020 will dramatically impact things to come in 2021. With that backdrop, here are predictions from three executives at data management company Cohesity on where data management is headed in 2021.

Mohit Aron, founder and CEO

Data management priorities will shift. The focus in 2021 will no longer be about managing storage, it is going to be about managing data. In 2021, businesses will focus more on how to easily access data and generate value from it. This includes data that is stored in the cloud. While hybrid cloud models will continue to grow in popularity and adoption in 2021, we will see more and more organizations embracing cloud-based services that enable companies to derive much more value from data, whether that's applying analytics and machine learning capabilities to the data, improving securing or elevating compliance.

Vineet Abraham, chief product and development officer

Attacks on data will continue to rise. While ransomware attacks became much more prevalent in 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic gripped nations around the world, in 2021, we will continue to see attacks grow at unprecedented levels - not only in terms of volumes but in terms of sophistication. Verticals particularly at risk will continue to be those with large personal data sets, such as healthcare, financial services, federal and retail. State-sponsored attacks will continue to disrupt transportation and supply chains. Organizations that can recover in minutes instead of days will be much more immune from ransomware extortion and have a tremendous advantage in their respective sectors. As a result, expect data management vendors to continue to focus heavily on security offerings that help organizations improve their security postures, including threat response and threat identification.

Matt Waxman, head of product

Customers Will Demand Ever Greater IT Simplicity

When IT can download exceptional innovations from an app store for free, who has the patience for outdated, costly legacy infrastructure? Enterprise tech will catch up with other industries by creating more consumer-like experiences that you can simply sign up to access and increase productivity without incurring new costs. Hybrid data management across on-premises and cloud solutions will become increasingly simple to deliver similar to consumer services, making it that much easier to manage, protect, and derive value from data.

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