Human error has replaced hardware failures as the primary driver of data loss and restore operations in modern IT environments. This episode explores real-world examples of how both end users and administrators create the need for backup and recovery operations through accidental deletions, configuration mistakes, and poor processes. W. Curtis Preston shares war stories from his decades in the industry, including incidents involving accidental directory deletions, source code stored in temporary folders, and tape library disasters. The discussion covers how technology improvements like RAID and solid-state drives have made hardware more reliable, shifting the focus to human-related incidents. The hosts also examine insider threats and the importance of implementing proper controls around privileged access. Learn why understanding human error patterns is critical for designing effective backup and recovery strategies that account for the reality of how data actually gets lost.

Learn how to extract measurable ROI from your backups beyond traditional disaster recovery. Curtis and Prasanna explore proven strategies for extracting business value from backup infrastructure through test and development environments, security monitoring, compliance checking, and AI-powered analytics. Discover why the shift from tape to disk storage created new opportunities for ROI from backups, including instant restore capabilities and data mining applications. The hosts share real-world examples of organizations using backup data for threat detection, regulatory compliance, and business intelligence. From Veeam's AI integration to copy data management techniques, this episode reveals practical approaches to transform backup systems from cost centers into value generators. Whether you're struggling to justify backup expenses or seeking ways to leverage existing investments, these ROI from backups strategies can help extract maximum value from your stored data.

World Backup Day falls on March 31st - the day before April Fool's Day because not backing up your data is no joke. In this episode, hosts W. Curtis Preston and Prasanna Malaiyandi discuss alarming statistics about data loss and why proper backup strategies are essential for business survival.

The hosts break down the famous 3-2-1 backup rule and how it applies to both consumers and enterprises. They examine the growing threat of ransomware, including double extortion attacks where criminals not only encrypt your data but threaten to publish it. With 94% of companies that suffer major data loss failing to recover, and 70% of small businesses closing within a year of significant data loss, World Backup Day serves as a crucial reminder to implement robust backup strategies that include immutable storage and protection for often-overlooked SaaS applications.

Stories from this episode:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomcoughlin/2025/03/31/march-31-is-world-backup-day/

https://objectfirst.com/blog/world-backup-day-2025/

https://www.backupwrapup.com/peter-krogh-who-coined-the-3-2-1-rule-on-our-podcast/

You've found The Backup Wrap-up, your go-to podcast for all things backup, recovery, and cyber-recovery. In this episode, we tackle one of the scariest threats out there - ransomware targeting VMware ESXi environments. I'm joined by Prasanna Malaiyandi and our special guest Melissa Palmer, also known as @vmiss, who's an independent technology analyst and ransomware resiliency architect. We get into why virtualization environments are such juicy targets for attackers, how they're specifically going after vCenter and ESXi hosts, and why your backup strategy is probably missing some critical components. If you've got a virtualized environment, you need to listen to this. Melissa brings her unique perspective from both the virtualization and security worlds to help you protect your most critical infrastructure. So buckle up - this is an episode you can't afford to miss if you want to keep your VMware environment safe from ransomware attacks.

In this episode of The Backup Wrap-up, W. Curtis Preston breaks down the key VeeamON announcements from the VeeamON 2025 conference in San Diego. He highlights Veeam's focus on security and ransomware defense, including their new CrowdStrike integration and data resilience maturity model developed with McKinsey and MIT.

Curtis shares his excitement about Veeam's long-awaited Linux-based software appliance, which addresses a critical security vulnerability in Windows-based backup systems. He also discusses other major VeeamON announcements like their Anthropic partnership for AI-powered backup content search, Microsoft Intra ID support, and the ability to recover backups to Azure in under five minutes. Whether you're a Veeam customer or just interested in backup technology trends, this episode provides valuable insights into these significant VeeamOn announcements.

DOGE and GSA recently made headlines with a tweet claiming $1 million annual savings by converting 14,000 magnetic tapes to "permanent modern digital records." In this episode, W. Curtis Preston and Prasanna Malaiyandi analyze whether this claim is possible – although they cannot actually validate it due to lack of information. They discuss that DOGE and GSA's claim is possible given the significant costs of maintaining legacy systems, the migration process would also likely take months and involve substantial upfront expenses. Curtis also shares a humorous story about accidentally pressing an emergency power button during a critical mainframe recovery.

Tape backup for small business might sound like old tech, but Mag Store's new Thunderbolt-compatible tape drive could change that perception. In this episode, we discuss how this new offering potentially opens tape technology to a wider market of SMBs and content creators looking for ransomware protection and cost-effective long-term storage.

Curtis and Prasanna dive into the specifics of when tape backup makes financial sense for small business data protection, particularly for companies generating large amounts of data or concerned about cloud security. They explore the $6,000 upfront investment against the long-term benefits of $90 tape cartridges that hold 45TB compressed. Perfect for SMBs with on-premises data or YouTube creators needing affordable archive solutions that are truly air-gapped from ransomware threats.

In this episode of The Backup Wrap-Up, Curtis and Prasanna explore how forever incremental backup technology revolutionized the data protection industry. They discuss the evolution from traditional backup methods to modern approaches that eliminate the need for regular full backups, dramatically reducing network traffic, storage requirements, and backup windows.

The hosts examine the technical foundations of forever incremental backups, from block-level incremental tracking to backend storage innovations that make multiple recovery points possible without redundant data transfers. They compare older approaches like synthetic fulls with true forever incremental implementations, highlighting the critical differences and benefits. Whether you're still using legacy backup tools or evaluating modern solutions, this episode provides essential insights into why forever incremental has become the standard for efficient, reliable backup systems.

In this episode of The Backup Wrap-Up, we look at the cloud vs tape debate for active archives. The conversation was sparked by a LinkedIn post claiming tape libraries are the only robots not making things easier in 2025, suggesting cloud is superior to tape for active archives.

We challenge this premise by pointing out that cloud vs tape is a false dichotomy since many cloud storage vendors use tape for their lowest-cost tiers. We examine key considerations including cost (where tape wins by orders of magnitude), data integrity (where tape actually outperforms disk), and access times (where expectations should align with use cases). For organizations running on-premises infrastructure, we also highlight the often-overlooked egress costs and transfer times associated with cloud storage. Whether you're managing secondary storage or planning an archive strategy, this candid discussion cuts through the marketing hype.

Here's the LinkedIn post that sparked the discussion:

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7300167312144322561/

Here's a recent episode about how tape is not dead:

https://www.backupwrapup.com/is-tape-backup-dead-why-it-still-matters/

In this eye-opening episode of The Backup Wrap-up, W. Curtis Preston and Prasanna Malaiyandi unpack crucial disaster recovery lessons from major events like 9/11. They discuss how companies lost both primary and backup data centers when both World Trade Center towers fell, highlighting why geographic separation is non-negotiable. The hosts break down the technical aspects of disaster recovery, comparing hot sites versus cold sites, and the realities of synchronous versus asynchronous replication across distances.

Beyond the technical, Curtis and Prasanna share often-overlooked disaster recovery lessons about human factors—where recovery teams will sleep, eat, and work during extended outages when infrastructure is destroyed. They examine a real case from a hurricane-stricken island where teams converted conference rooms to sleeping quarters and relied on satellite communications. Whether you're planning for natural disasters, power outages, or ransomware attacks, these disaster recovery lessons will help ensure your organization can recover when—not if—disaster strikes.