Synology survey finds 64% of Indian organisations bought data protection after incidents

A Synology survey finds incident-led data protection spending among Indian organisations, while results across three markets reveal gaps in backup frequency, recovery testing and tool integration despite widespread confidence in resilience among surveyed IT decision-makers.

Nearly two-thirds of Indian organisations surveyed commissioned new data protection purchases following a security incident, according to Synology’s 2026 Enterprise Survey, highlighting the role of breaches and disruptions in shaping investment decisions.

The research found that 64% of Indian respondents reported incident-triggered purchases, compared with 49% in Australia and 48% in the Middle East and Africa (MEA). Across all surveyed markets, the figure stood at 54%.

Conducted by Foundry between May 11 and June 2, 2026, the survey covered 308 IT decision-makers across the three markets. Respondents held network administrator or more senior roles at organisations with at least 100 employees, all of which already had data protection solutions.

Incidents shape Indian purchases

Infrastructure upgrades prompted data protection purchases among 46% of Indian respondents, while 32% cited cost reduction initiatives, compared with 18% in Australia. Regulatory requirements were identified as a purchase trigger by 29% of Indian respondents.

The findings indicate that security incidents remain a stronger purchase trigger than regulatory requirements among the Indian organisations surveyed.

“Our research highlights an important distinction between confidence and actual preparedness,” said Andrew Huang, Regional Sales Head, Synology. “As businesses increasingly rely on data to support critical operations and AI adoption, cyber resilience must go beyond deploying backup solutions. Organizations need to ensure their data is consistently protected and that recovery capabilities can be validated when disruption occurs.”

Confidence exceeds recovery readiness

Across the surveyed markets, 99% of respondents expressed confidence in their organisation’s resilience to disruption. However, the research identified gaps in backup practices, recovery validation and coordination.

Only 43% reported using real-time or continuous data protection. The remaining 57% relied on daily, weekly or monthly backups, leaving intervals during which newly generated data could be lost if systems were disrupted.

Recovery testing was also inconsistent. One-fifth of respondents said their organisations validated recoverability only occasionally, while another 6% lacked a coordinated recovery approach or remained reactive.

Integration emerged as the most frequently cited challenge in managing data protection. Respondents reported using multiple tools for backup, disaster recovery, ransomware protection and security, adding complexity when those systems operated independently.

Organisations spent an average of 15 hours a week managing data protection across separate tools. For 5% of respondents, that workload reached at least 40 hours weekly.

Spending growth and modernisation priorities

The survey indicated that data protection investment was expected to rise by approximately 14–15% over the next two years, with 69% of organisations anticipating increases of at least 10%.

While 31% were focusing on AI-driven automation, 12% prioritised backup modernisation. Synology said the findings pointed to a need to strengthen foundational protection and recovery capabilities alongside investment in newer technologies.

“As security attacks increasingly target backups, cyber resilience can no longer be treated as an add-on layer assembled after deployment,” said Jia-Yu Liu, Executive Vice President, Data Protection Group, Synology. “Organizations should seek an integrated platform that unifies hardware, software, and backup management, while maximizing storage efficiency, with built-in advanced protection and one-click security updates.”

Synology expands backup portfolio

Alongside the findings, Synology outlined updates to its ActiveProtect portfolio. Its appliances combine dedicated backup infrastructure, centralised management, immutable protection and automated isolation, which the company says help preserve recovery copies when production systems are compromised.

ActiveProtect Manager 2.0 expands workload support to platforms including Nutanix AHV and Proxmox VE. The company is also expanding the series with the DP5200, a 1U appliance designed to protect multiple workloads without recurring subscription fees.