Big data explosion and data transformation have taken the world by force, especially in the post-pandemic era. This entails companies moving to the cloud, working virtually and having their information online. In fact, IDC identified businesses will create 175 zettabytes per year in 2025, a 10-fold increase in less than a decade. But, without a doubt, this boon has been accompanied by the threatening challenges of privacy and security. Fears around data protection, privacy and security compliances hold companies back from taking the digital transformation plunge while endangering organisations that have done so already. 

This situation has also given rise to the latest data science trend, data protection as a service. The Data Protection as a Service Market – Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2021 – 2026) report valued data protection as a service at USD 7.61 billion in the 2020 market and expects it to reach USD 18.96 billion by 2026, registering a CAGR of 17.1% from 2021 – 2026.

What is this service?

Techopedia has defined data protection as a service as “a cloud-based or web-delivered service for protecting data assets. Companies can utilise this type of service to enhance network security and build better security for data in transit and data at rest.” Essentially, the service creates a copy of your data and stores it in a separate location—variating between online, in the cloud, or on an external device. 

DPaaS is mainly used to secure network vulnerabilities and prevent data loss due to common errors. It is a typically preferred service and digital transformation to allow for better business outcomes and system performance. 

Service providers also offer data analysis software, firewalls, and VPNs to provide better online security. All in all, it allows organisations to secure their data through granular protection, network security and recovery options through the usual subscription model.

BaaS, StaaS and DRaaS

The DPaaS market provides three major services and is broken into Backup as a Service (BaaS), Storage as a Service(STaaS), and Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS). While these services differ in their implementation, the end goal is to improve the efficiency and security of the business in question. Additionally, they can also be used in conjunction with one another for more effectiveness. 

BaaS: Backup as a Service

Backup-as-a-Service is the approach of backing up data safely on the cloud to allow for easy recovery in case of a data breach or loss of information. DPaaS providers supply companies with their software that the organisation can back their data on. This software is regularly maintained, updated and improved. Depending on the subscription service level, the backup would run continuously or at timely intervals.

STaaS: Storage as a Service

Storage-as-a-Service uses public cloud storage resources to store the company’s data. This includes on-premise applications such as a physical disk to make copies of the organisation’s data to a local destination. This is a preferred and cheaper approach for start-ups or organisations not investing in private storage infrastructure. Companies’ services include cloud for multimedia storage, data repositories, data backup and recovery, and disaster recovery. 

DRaaS: Disaster Recovery as a Service

Disaster-Recovery-as-a-Service is the third approach where organisations can back up their data onto a third-party computing environment. Usually offered in conjunction with businesses’ disaster recovery plan, DRaaS is the chosen solution to protect data from disruption caused by disasters, allowing organisations to continue even in cases of systemic, natural or manufactured failures. This option works as a last resort for companies.

The state of DPaaS

Storing data copies is a costly process—both building a systemic infrastructure and hiring a team to manage it. More and more organisations are relying on DPaaS, given its cost efficiency, data security and disaster recovery plans. A 2020 collaboration of Forrester research with IBM conducted a total economic survey of IBM’s security guardian and found cost and risk reductions with increased productivity and tactical efficiencies on the company’s ROI. 

The latest researches have varying statistics about the growth of this market. For example, Allied Market Research foresees this growth of $28.87 billion by 2022, while Transparency Market Research projects a $46 billion growth by 2024. But the conclusion remains that the market is growing at a high rate. And we can already see big tech providers jumping on this bandwagon and providing data protection services to their customers. These include top companies like IBM, AWS, Hewlett, Dell, Oracle, Intel, Cisco, Asigra, Quantum and Hitachi. The companies also provide more services and offers than the basic provisions; for instance, AWS promises ‘security’, ‘data privacy’, ‘data controls’ and ‘data sovereignty’.