The fashionable office has undergone a seismic transformation over current years, with hybrid work changing into the norm and companies quickly adopting cloud-based Software program-as-a-Service (SaaS) functions to facilitate it. SaaS functions like Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace have now change into the spine of enterprise operations, enabling seamless collaboration and productiveness. Nonetheless, this dependence on SaaS options has additionally attracted a surge in cyberthreats, exposing crucial enterprise information to dangers like ransomware and phishing assaults.
Amid these challenges, the 2025 State of SaaS Backup and Restoration Report provides a well timed evaluation of the SaaS information safety panorama. By surveying over 3,700 IT professionals from numerous industries and firm sizes, this report highlights developments, challenges and options shaping the way forward for SaaS information resilience. For organizations in search of readability in navigating these turbulent waters, the findings present invaluable steerage.
Key revelations from the report are each eye-opening and regarding. As an illustration, 87% of IT professionals reported experiencing SaaS information loss in 2024, with malicious deletions because the main trigger. Furthermore, whereas 61% of functions and workloads are anticipated to run on public cloud platforms within the subsequent two years, solely 14% of IT leaders really feel assured they’ll recuperate crucial SaaS information inside minutes following an incident. These findings underscore an pressing name to motion for companies to strengthen their information resilience methods.
On this weblog, we’ll uncover the survey’s key findings, revealing how organizations are adapting to satisfy the continuing challenges. From revealing the most important threats to understanding the methods IT leaders are leveraging to remain forward, you will achieve a transparent image of the developments shaping SaaS information safety.
The shift towards cloud: Main developments reshaping trendy IT operations
Organizations worldwide are more and more counting on hybrid cloud environments, with 54% of workloads and functions already cloud-hosted. This pattern exhibits no indicators of slowing down, as companies anticipate rising this determine to 61% by 2026. The acceleration of cloud adoption displays the crucial position cloud options play in driving digital transformation and enabling organizations to scale successfully.
What’s driving cloud adoption?
The advantages propelling speedy cloud migration are clear: leveraging cloud platforms permits organizations to boost operational effectivity, optimize strategic analytics and help real-time decision-making. Nonetheless, this enthusiasm comes with a caveat — corporations are fastidiously navigating considerations about information sensitivity, safety and compliance as they transition.
Knowledge sorts shifting to the cloud
Sure forms of information dominate cloud migration developments, illustrating the place organizations really feel assured leveraging the cloud’s potential. The highest candidates for information migration to the cloud embrace:
- Non-sensitive analytics information (39%): Main the pack, these datasets spotlight the cloud’s position in powering strategic insights.
- The Web of Issues (IoT) and edge information (34%): The inclusion of high-velocity datasets displays rising belief within the cloud’s means to deal with real-time analytics at scale.
- Gross sales and orders information (34%): Organizations are more and more turning to cloud-hosted options to drive operational effectivity in gross sales processes.
Knowledge that is staying on-premises
Regardless of the attract of the cloud, companies are cautious about entrusting their most delicate info to third-party environments. The highest candidates for information to stay on-premises embrace:
- Personally identifiable info (PII) and guarded well being info (PHI) (42%): Strict laws and considerations about breaches preserve this information largely on-premises.
- Company monetary information (42%): Corporations stay cautious of potential dangers within the cloud for crucial monetary information.
- Delicate mental property (40%): Sustaining tight management over proprietary property stays a high precedence.
Prime use circumstances for public cloud adoption
Cloud adoption is pushed by sensible wants that align with trendy enterprise challenges:
- Collaboration (39%): The pliability and scalability of cloud options are important for supporting hybrid and distant work environments.
- Catastrophe restoration (37%): Making certain quick restoration and defending information from loss or downtime stay crucial priorities.
- Knowledge warehousing and Database-as-a-Service (32%): Organizations worth the cloud’s means to handle giant datasets and allow seamless data-driven operations.
SaaS software developments in 2024
The adoption of SaaS functions continues to remodel how companies collaborate, handle operations and scale their companies. Collaboration platforms stay on the forefront of SaaS adoption, reflecting their crucial position in at present’s hybrid and distant work environments.
Microsoft 365 retains management whereas Google Workspace features momentum
Microsoft 365 maintains its place because the chief in SaaS collaboration options, with a 53% adoption price amongst survey respondents. Nonetheless, this represents a decline from its 71% adoption price in 2022, indicating a possible shift in preferences or growing competitors within the SaaS house.
In the meantime, Google Workspace has seen a constant rise in adoption, climbing to 35% in 2024 in comparison with 25% in 2022. This progress is especially pronounced amongst SMBs, with 38% adoption in comparison with 32% amongst enterprises.
Diverging SaaS adoption developments between SMBs and enterprises
The survey additionally highlighted distinct preferences between SMBs and enterprise organizations in terms of SaaS instruments:
- SMBs favor functions that simplify on a regular basis operations and finance administration, resembling:
- Google Workspace: 38% of SMBs vs. 32% of enterprises.
- Dropbox: 26% of SMBs vs. 20% of enterprises.
- Intuit QuickBooks: 20% of SMBs vs. 17% of enterprises.
- Enterprises lean in the direction of instruments that help large-scale operations and buyer engagement, resembling:
- Microsoft Dynamics: 32% of enterprises vs. 28% of SMBs.
- Salesforce: 28% of enterprises vs. 22% of SMBs.
- HubSpot: 24% of enterprises vs. 20% of SMBs.
What are the most important obstacles to cloud adoption?
Regardless of the widespread adoption of cloud options, many organizations face important hurdles in migrating workloads and information to the cloud.
- Cloud price optimization (24%): Managing bills throughout and after migration stays the highest concern for organizations.
- Compatibility and efficiency points (20%): Making certain workloads perform seamlessly post-migration is one other important hurdle that causes delays and disruptions.
- Some organizations additionally face difficulties with supplier choice and feasibility (15%), post-migration administration (14%), right-sizing cloud situations (8%), licensing complexities (7%) and managing software dependencies (5%).
The gaps IT professionals cannot ignore: Why confidence in restoration is low
Backup methods are important to securing crucial SaaS information, but IT professionals’ confidence in these methods stays alarmingly low.
Backup technique adoption throughout SaaS platforms
Organizations leveraging SaaS functions report various ranges of backup technique implementation:
- Microsoft 365: 70% have a backup technique in place, the best amongst SaaS platforms.
- Google Workspace: 66% of customers report having a backup plan, reflecting sturdy adoption.
- Salesforce: Solely 53% have a devoted backup technique, signaling a crucial vulnerability.
Low confidence in backup system effectiveness
Regardless of the presence of backup methods, solely 40% of IT professionals expressed confidence of their methods’ means to guard crucial information throughout a disaster. This hesitancy is fueled by:
- Outdated backup options: Over 28% of respondents indicated their backup methods have not advanced in 5 years, leaving them ill-equipped to deal with modern-day threats.
- Dissatisfaction with present options: Almost 30% of IT professionals imagine their backup and restoration instruments fall in need of what their group wants.
- Fewer than 10% of respondents really feel their group’s strategy to backup and catastrophe restoration is ample with out requiring any modifications.
What are the challenges in backup administration?
Managing backups for SaaS functions presents distinctive challenges, various by platform and person cohort. The survey reveals distinct ache factors for customers of Microsoft 365, Google Workspace and Salesforce:
- Knowledge restoration points: Google Workspace (23%) and Salesforce (23%) customers report the best charges of problem with information restoration, in comparison with 20% of Microsoft 365 customers.
- Alerting and reporting: Google Workspace customers (11%) are most challenged in establishing and managing alerts, surpassing Microsoft 365 (8%) and Salesforce (8%) customers.
- Compliance upkeep: Salesforce customers (24%) battle most with sustaining compliance, adopted by Google Workspace (23%) and Microsoft 365 (21%).
The rising time burden of backup administration
Backup administration has change into more and more time-intensive for IT groups:
- Over 50% of respondents spend greater than two hours day by day — equating to over 10 hours per week — on monitoring, managing and troubleshooting backups.
- The cohort spending lower than one hour day by day has dropped sharply, from 39% in 2022 to 23% in 2024, whereas these dedicating three or extra hours day by day have grown from 5% in 2022 to 14% in 2024.
How organizations are securing backup infrastructure
Nearly all of organizations report having insurance policies and controls in place to safe entry to their backups throughout key areas, together with public cloud (77%), servers or digital machines (76%), SaaS functions (74%) and endpoints/PCs (73%).
Whereas these numbers mirror a proactive strategy, round 25% of organizations nonetheless lack insurance policies and controls for backup safety, presenting vulnerabilities in an more and more hybrid and multicloud surroundings.
What are the most important causes of SaaS information loss?
SaaS information loss stays a big problem, with solely 13% of organizations reporting no information loss incidents prior to now yr. Key causes embrace:
- Malicious deletion: Greater than 50% of organizations suffered information loss from malicious deletion, 29% had been impacted by exterior threats and 27% by insider actions.
- Unintended deletion: 34% of respondents skilled information loss on account of human error.
- Misconfigurations: 30% of organizations confronted information loss on account of improper setup or upkeep.
- Integration points: Conflicts with third-party functions affected 30% of respondents.
- Technical errors: 18% skilled scripting errors, whereas 14% confronted sync points.
The race to restoration: How shortly can organizations restore misplaced SaaS information?
The power to swiftly recuperate misplaced SaaS information is crucial for minimizing downtime and avoiding pricey compliance breaches. But, restoration instances differ broadly:
- Solely 14% of organizations surveyed can recuperate inside minutes, guaranteeing minimal disruption.
- Simply over 40% obtain restoration inside hours, assembly operational and regulatory calls for.
- About 35% require days or even weeks, risking extended downtime and potential non-compliance.
- Alarmingly, 8% are uncertain of restoration instances, and 2% can’t recuperate misplaced information in any respect.
Restoration of SaaS information objects
The frequency of recovering SaaS information objects is as follows:
- Most steadily recovered:
- Electronic mail (20%) and mail contacts (17%) are restored day by day, emphasizing their crucial position in communication and enterprise continuity.
- Least steadily recovered:
- Calendar objects (15%) and messaging app information (16%) see fewer restoration incidents, indicating decrease frequency of loss or diminished speedy operational affect.
Key takeaways and suggestions from the 2025 State of SaaS Backup and Restoration Report
The 2025 State of SaaS Backup and Restoration Report paints a vivid image of the evolving SaaS information safety panorama. Cloud adoption continues to surge amongst organizations, pushed by the operational effectivity and scalability of SaaS platforms. But, alongside these developments lie important challenges. From tackling information threats to addressing the complexities of backup administration, the findings spotlight an pressing want for companies to rethink and modernize their information safety methods.
On that entrance, companies should undertake a complete, scalable backup technique that aligns with the complexities of at present’s hybrid and multicloud environments. Such a method ought to embrace strong information safety and speedy restoration capabilities to deal with SaaS information threats like unintended deletions and ransomware assaults. By investing in the appropriate instruments and practices, organizations can improve their information resilience, decrease downtime and confidently meet the calls for of an more and more cloud-driven future.
For deeper insights into the SaaS world and actionable suggestions, obtain the total 2025 State of SaaS Backup and Restoration Report.
