Disaster Recovery Journal Summer 2024

EDITOR’S NOTE : DCIG empowers the IT industry with actionable analysis that equips individuals within organizations to do supplier and product evaluations. DCIG delivers informed, insightful, third-party analysis, and commentary on IT technology. As industry experts, DCIG provides comprehensive, in-depth analysis, and recommendations of various enterprise data storage and data protection technologies. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in all Disaster Recovery Journal articles belong solely to the author. The information, product recommendations, and opinions in this article are based upon public information and from sources DCIG, LLC. believes to be accurate and reliable.

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O rganizations face a growing chal lenge when it comes to effec tively utilizing artificial intel ligence (AI) in today’s data protection solutions. As more solutions offer AI, organiza tions must determine what AI features they deliver and if organizations can use the AI they offer. This puts the onus on organizations to separate the noise from reality when evaluating AI in these solu tions. The AI Noise More news articles and technology provider press releases than ever in some way reference AI. Both do it for similar reasons. In the case of news articles, AI has seemingly captivated readers with its endless possibilities to address unsolvable problems. In response, news outlets pro duce articles to feed the reader desire for this content. In contrast, the use of AI in press releases stems from, in part, each provider’s desire to make its solution appear cut ting edge. Failing to mention AI may result in these solu

backup and/or production data and may even accelerate data restores. Organizations should not necessarily use this imple mentation of AI to replace their existing cyber security defenses. However, AI can complement these defenses in notable ways. For instance: n Uses AI to scan for anomalies in backups . Backup anomalies can result from ransomware having taken hold undetected in the production environment. In these cases, the ransomware may take administrative control of servers or PCs and disable the cyber security on them. The ransomware may then start to slowly but methodically delete, encrypt, or infect production data. Using AI to scan the backups, it can compare current backups with prior ones. These anomalies may become evident as the AI tool may identify changes to files that should rarely or never change. This technique provides organizations with a new means to detect the possible presence of ransomware.

tions being viewed as irrel evant or antiquated. Unfortunately, all these AI mentions, legitimate or oth erwise, have resulted in AI becoming just another buzz word. In some cases, features labeled as “AI” may repre sent nothing more than them a simple rebranding of existing features. Granted, these pre-existing features may fall under AI’s broader umbrella. However, they may not necessarily rep resent new or innovative func tions. Rather, they only serve to create more noise which has led to increasing AI fatigue on the part of organizations. Where AI Has Found a Home Despite the noise around AI, organizations that choose to ignore AI do so at their own peril. AI already provides some tangible, measurable benefits in today’s data pro tection solutions. The key for organizations becomes identi fying in which data protection solutions AI has found a home. Backup software currently represents the best place to look for meaningful implemen tations of AI in data protection solutions. It primarily uses AI to help detect ransomware in

In contrast, the use of AI in press releases stems from, in part, each provider’s desire to make its solution appear cutting edge. Failing to mention AI may result in these solutions being viewed as irrelevant or antiquated.

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9 DISASTER RECOVERY JOURNAL | SUMMER 2024