In my lifetime, the way we use technology has changed beyond recognition. We’ve come a long way since the late 1970s and early 1980s, when I set up a computer club at school with one of my teachers. After a meandering career path that took me from a local newspaper to a bank and then a consulting role, I started at Sun Chemical 28 years ago.
Data Protection Comes to the Fore
In my nearly three decades at Sun Chemical, I’ve seen data protection shift from a non-concept to a top priority. Cyberattacks weren’t even on our radar a few years ago, whereas now we make our biggest IT investments in data security — and for good reason.
External threats have risen dramatically, with cyber-criminals becoming ever more inventive about how they seek to compromise corporate systems. It’s scary how bad actors are harnessing the latest advancements in AI to conduct increasingly sophisticated phishing attacks.
Inside the business, our endpoints and landscape have also evolved. In the past, you knew exactly where your employees were accessing your systems from at all times. Now, they could be using any one of a range of devices in any corner of the globe.
Empowering Users While Protecting Data
While we must prioritize cybersecurity, ease of access to data is critical too. There’s no use having the most secure IT systems around if you’re hampering your employees’ productivity. Finding this balance is crucial to help your people work effectively.
Our users don’t care what we use in the background to protect data — they only care that it’s readily accessible when they need it. Veeam is providing some of the key layers of resilience we rely on to secure our IT network. And, if the worst happens and an attacker does find a way into our systems, then Veeam gives us that final insurance policy: allowing us to recover our data swiftly and effectively.
Finding Trusted Partners
More and more, we’re looking to the cloud to unlock powerful new capabilities fast and relieve pressure on our relatively lean IT team. But when you’re trusting a cloud vendor with your precious data, you must have 100% faith that they’ll deliver on their promises.
For example, our Microsoft 365 environment is central to our business performance and will only become more important in the coming years. We’re in the process of migrating data from our local file servers into Microsoft SharePoint to improve central access to data and streamline our infrastructure even further. This move is only possible because we’re so confident that our Microsoft 365 data is incredibly well-protected.
As a result, we can relax and let go of worries about that part of our environment. We get an automated notification from Veeam on the rare occasion that a backup needs attention. Otherwise, the solution does its job seamlessly in the background, with no effort required on our part.
Looking to the Future
No one truly knows what’s around the corner for Sun Chemical or our industry. I’ve learned to invest in being prepared — with help from Veeam, of course. Next, we’re working on the culture change that comes with encouraging users to save data in the cloud rather than locally. Reassuring our teams that we have data protection in-hand will play a big part in that effort. Whatever happens, we’ll be ready!
