Most organizations rely on a layered approach to their security, utilizing strong perimeters to keep attackers out and robust backup systems to restore data if a breach occurs. But backups are typically engaged well into an attack, long after data has already been compromised, encrypted, or stolen. Because attackers ultimately target the data sitting in your primary storage, the storage layer should be an active participant in its protection.
A recent IDC Analyst Brief, Storage Is the Front Line of Cyber-Resilience, explores why organizations should transform their primary storage into an active defense mechanism. By integrating cyber resilience strategies into their storage, infrastructure leaders can minimize the impact and return to normal business operations quickly and easily following an attack.
Here is a quick look at a few of the core concepts covered in the new IDC Analyst Brief, highlighting why protecting data against ransomware attacks at the storage layer is increasingly becoming a top priority for both storage and security professionals.
Early detection limits data loss
A resilient storage solution must be able to immediately detect and contain attacks. This means continuously monitoring for anomalous activity—keeping a close eye on suspicious activity, identifying the users performing these actions, and immediately alerting on potential compromises the moment they happen. Then, once an attack is detected, your storage must be able to immediately take action to contain the attack to limit the blast radius and avoid data loss before the attack spreads.
Recovery prevents reinfection
While stopping the attack is critical, the attack is not over until the data has been fully restored and steps have been taken to ensure that malware is not reintroduced into production and able to reinfect the data again.
Collaboration with SecOps drives business resilience
Implementing cyber resilience in storage involves more than technology capabilities. It requires adopting a resilient culture, establishing best practices, and enabling your storage administrators to work efficiently with your security operations (SecOps) teams.
This post only scratches the surface of the insights provided by IDC. The full study dives much deeper into the specific benefits of proactive storage defense, the challenges storage teams face when advocating for investment, and actionable advice for framing these initiatives to leadership.
NetApp delivers resilient storage
At NetApp protecting your data is a top priority. As the most secure storage on the planet, we are transforming the requirements outlined by IDC into actionable solutions – ensuring that ONTAP serves as active layer of resilience against attacks.
NetApp Ransomware Resilience provides a comprehensive ransomware defense for ONTAP. It automatically detects data breaches, suspicious user behaviors, encryption (utilizing APR/AI), and data deletion in real time, and immediately responds to contain the attack and limit its impact. Ransomware Resilience then cleans and restores the maximum amount of up-to-date data possible, all through a guided process.
With Ransomware Resilience you can limit data loss, prevent reinfection of the data, and minimize business disruptions – all while reducing the operational burden of managing cyber defense for ONTAP.
Learn more about NetApp Ransomware Resilience, and try it for free.
IDC Analyst Brief, sponsored by: NetApp, Storage Is the Front Line of Cyber-Resilience, #US54431826, March 2026
