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HYCU Delivers on Its Promise: Comprehensive SaaS and Multi-Cloud Data Protection

HYCU-office

Photo Courtesy of IT Press Tour

In a world where data is the lifeblood of organizations, protecting it has never been more critical - or more challenging. At the 58th IT Press Tour in Boston, HYCU, a leader in data backup and recovery solutions, showcased how it's rising to meet these challenges head-on. The company's leaders, including CEO Simon Taylor, SVP of Products Subbiah Sundaram, and Director of Product Marketing Andy Fernandez, painted a picture of a rapidly evolving data protection landscape and HYCU's role in shaping it.

The SaaS Explosion and the Protection Gap

Simon Taylor kicked off the briefing with a stark reminder of how dramatically the IT landscape has changed. Taylor's story involved his dad, who ran a huge IT department in the 80s and 90s. And back then, IT departments had a bunch of racks of equipment. You had a whole bunch of on-prem in the basement, and everybody understood one fundamental truth -- it's my infrastructure. It's my data. And if it goes away, we all get fired.

Fast forward to today, and the picture couldn't be more different. Organizations are grappling with a dizzying array of SaaS applications, public cloud services, and hybrid environments. HYCU's research reveals that the average mid-market company uses 212 SaaS services internally. Even HYCU itself, a relatively lean operation, utilizes 98 such services.

This explosion of SaaS adoption has created a significant protection gap. Many organizations assume their data is safe in the hands of SaaS providers, unaware of the shared responsibility model that places the onus of data protection squarely on their shoulders.

HYCU's State of SaaS Resilience Survey uncovered some alarming trends:

  1. Organizations underestimate their SaaS footprint by a factor of 10.
  2. SaaS was the number one source of data breaches for over 60% of respondents.
  3. Nearly half of organizations incorrectly assume cloud vendors are responsible for data protection.
  4. 75% said their business would be significantly impacted if Single Sign-On (SSO) and Identity and Access Management (IAM) configurations became unavailable.

Protecting the Entire Tech Stack

In response to these challenges, HYCU has dramatically expanded its data protection capabilities. While other vendors in the space typically support around 9 SaaS applications, HYCU now protects over 80 applications and databases across the entire tech stack.

Subbiah Sundaram emphasized the importance of this comprehensive approach:

"The key thing from a customer perspective, all of these individual point solutions, or point products, are not solutions. What they care about is that, hey, what's happening with my software development? Just because GitLab went down, your entire development stops. It's not that just one SaaS app went down, no. Your entire development team of 3,000 developers stopped working. That's the challenge here."

HYCU's protection now spans:

  1. Infrastructure Services
  2. IT Service Management
  3. Software Development, App Management & DevOps
  4. Information Security & Compliance
  5. Data Management & Analytics
  6. Collaborative Work Management

This breadth of coverage allows organizations to protect their entire application ecosystem, from build to run, addressing the complex interdependencies of modern IT environments.

Cross-Cloud Mobility: Freedom to Move

Another key focus for HYCU is enabling cross-cloud mobility. As organizations increasingly adopt multi-cloud strategies or look to repatriate workloads from the cloud back to on-premises environments, the ability to move data seamlessly becomes crucial.

Simon Taylor highlighted this trend:

"People are starting to move back. And I think having those hybrid cloud resources, it was important from day one for us; but I think now, with what we've added, and the breadth of support we have, people are turning to us to move back and forth. It used to be migration was a one way street, and now they're asking for things to go both ways."

HYCU demonstrated its ability to move workloads and data between various environments, including on-premises infrastructure, multiple public clouds, and SaaS platforms. This flexibility allows customers to optimize their IT resources without being locked into any single vendor or platform.

Meeting Regulatory Requirements: DORA and NIS2

Until this briefing, I thought DORA was just a small cartoon child who had a magic backpack and a friend named Boots, trying to cross the crocodile river to get to a magic dance party somewhere in the rain forest. I was wrong. This particular DORA is not cute at all.    

As the regulatory landscape continues to evolve, particularly in Europe, they have introduced something called the 'Digital Operational Resilience Act' (DORA), along with NIS2, where organizations will face new compliance challenges related to data protection and resilience.

Andy Fernandez explained the significance of these regulations, specifically calling out Article 12 of DORA:

"This is huge. It explicitly requires that the backup system and the ICT system is recovered from a logically separated component."

This requirement means that organizations, particularly those in the financial sector, must maintain offsite backups separate from their production systems. HYCU is positioning itself as a key enabler for compliance with these regulations by allowing customers to store their backups in their own storage, either on-premises or in the public cloud of their choice.

The HYCU Difference: Customer-Centric Data Protection

Throughout the briefing, HYCU's leadership emphasized their customer-centric approach to data protection. Unlike some competitors who store customer backups in their own infrastructure, HYCU made it clear that they believe in giving customers full control over their backup data.

Simon Taylor articulated this philosophy, saying, "You should never let somebody else control your data, whether it's your primary or your target, right? But if you're going to use SaaS services, you've already given up production. At least be in control of your backup, your secondary copy, that's so important."

This approach not only aligns with regulatory requirements but also gives customers peace of mind knowing they have full control over their critical data.

Real-World Impact: Customer Stories

The HYCU team shared several customer stories that illustrate the real-world impact of their solutions. One particularly striking example involved a municipality that accidentally deleted 2,000 assets due to a misconfiguration. When they reached out to their SaaS provider for help, they were told, "This is your data, we unfortunately can't help you with that."

This incident underscores the importance of having robust, independent backup and recovery solutions for SaaS data. It also highlights the misconception many organizations have about the level of protection provided by their SaaS vendors.

Looking Ahead: The Future of Data Protection

As HYCU continues to innovate and expand its capabilities, the company sees several key trends shaping the future of data protection:

  1. Increased regulatory pressure, particularly in Europe with DORA and NIS2, driving demand for comprehensive backup solutions.
  2. Growing awareness of the shared responsibility model in cloud and SaaS environments, leading to more proactive data protection strategies.
  3. The need for cross-cloud mobility as organizations optimize their IT resources across hybrid and multi-cloud environments.
  4. Rising concerns about cybersecurity, with SaaS applications becoming a prime target for attacks and data breaches.

Delivering on the Promise

HYCU's presentation at the 58th IT Press Tour demonstrated how the company is delivering on its promise to provide comprehensive SaaS and multi-cloud data protection. By supporting over 80 applications across the entire tech stack, enabling cross-cloud mobility, and helping customers meet evolving regulatory requirements, HYCU is positioning itself as a leader in the rapidly evolving data protection landscape.

As Simon Taylor aptly put it, "We are actually the bulwark that is going to help these customers to get what they really need. As long as we can get the customer base and the marketplace to really understand the shared responsibility model is not going anywhere, not even for Salesforce."

In a world where data is increasingly distributed and vulnerable, HYCU's approach to data protection offers a beacon of hope for organizations struggling to keep their critical information safe and compliant. As the SaaS explosion continues and regulatory pressures mount, HYCU's comprehensive, customer-centric approach to data protection is likely to resonate with organizations of all sizes looking to secure their digital future.

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Published Monday, October 21, 2024 7:30 AM by David Marshall
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