By Sandeep Bhambure, Vice President and Managing Director, Veeam Software & Dave Russell, Senior Vice President, Head of Strategy, Veeam Software
As Indian organizations rely on increasingly complex IT networks and third-party providers, hidden vulnerabilities put data resilience and business continuity at greater risk.
Across sectors such as banking, fintech, e-commerce, and healthcare, sprawling data estates are expanding faster than enterprises can control them. The proliferation of domestic IT service providers, cloud vendors, and digital platforms has multiplied the number of third-party touchpoints, each introducing new layers of risk. The result is a fragmented data ecosystem where blind spots are inevitable and exploitable.
India’s digital economy is growing at a pace unmatched globally, but the same speed is amplifying exposure. The challenge before Indian enterprises is not merely to manage data growth but to build resilience into the very architecture of their operations.
Data’s growing pains
For organizations looking to address their data estates, the priority is getting an accurate view of their full landscape.
Data growth is no longer linear, it is exponential. The rise of AI, automation, and digital platforms has transformed how information is created, stored, and shared. In India, this acceleration is particularly visible. The country’s data centre industry has grown from 590 MW in 2019 to 1.4 GW in 2024, a 139% jump, and is projected to reach 3 GW by 2030, driven by cloud adoption, AI demand, and data localisation initiatives.
This infrastructure boom, while positive, brings new operational realities. Most enterprises now operate across hybrid environments, combining on-premises, public cloud and SaaS-based data stores. Without unified oversight, these fragmented environments risk becoming silos. True resilience depends not just on protecting data but understanding where it lives, how it moves, and who controls it.
As AI becomes embedded into business processes, data management must evolve from a static framework to a dynamic, intelligent function. AI models generate massive new data sets, often without clear governance. Departments experimenting with AI frequently create parallel data systems that escape enterprise oversight, leading to what can be termed “shadow data.” This unseen layer of information can quickly become a weak link in the resilience chain if not identified and secured.
Enterprises must therefore shift their focus from storage capacity to data accountability, ensuring that every byte, wherever it resides, is visible, governed, and recoverable.
Beyond the enterprise perimeter
The complexity of India’s digital ecosystem extends beyond the boundaries of an organization’s own infrastructure. Businesses today operate as part of vast digital supply chains interconnected through APIs, SaaS solutions and managed services. These partnerships enable innovation and scalability, but they also diffuse responsibility.
The absence of standardized accountability models often leads enterprises to assume that service providers have resilience fully covered. In reality, resilience cannot be outsourced: it must be verified. The Shared Responsibility Model, while often referenced in theory, is rarely implemented with the rigor it requires.
As India’s regulatory environment matures, this verification will no longer be optional. The Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, along with directives from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and SEBI, has already expanded accountability to include third-party vendors. These regulations mark a turning point: enterprises are now expected to demonstrate that both they and their vendors maintain robust, transparent data management practices.
Globally, this principle is taking hold as well. Organizations are moving from assuming resilience to proving resilience through continuous testing, dependency mapping, and simulation exercises. Indian enterprises must adopt similar models, treating every vendor relationship as an extension of their own risk perimeter.
From compliance to capability
While India has taken major strides toward codifying data protection, regulation alone cannot guarantee resilience. According to McKinsey, nearly 30% of organizations overestimate their resilience maturity. This gap exists because compliance frameworks often stop at documentation rather than operational depth.
Globally, enterprises are reframing resilience as a core business capability. This approach requires integrating resilience principles into decision-making: from procurement and architecture design to crisis response. Simulated attacks, failover testing and dependency audits are becoming part of daily operational culture, not annual exercises.
For Indian organizations, this mindset shift is vital. RBI’s ICT risk management directives and the DPDP Act establish the baseline; the differentiator lies in how proactively organizations operationalize these expectations. By moving beyond compliance checklists and embedding resilience into enterprise culture, leaders can safeguard not only data but also reputation, trust and business continuity.
Tackling it from the ground up
Building resilience in India’s distributed IT environment demands both structure and foresight. Enterprises must begin by mapping the full data landscape, identifying where data resides, how it flows and where dependencies lie. Once visibility is established, the next step is to test that understanding through real-world simulation.
Frameworks such as the Data Resilience Maturity Model (DRMM) offer a practical roadmap for this process. The model provides measurable benchmarks, vendor-neutral assessment tool and a clear progression path to strengthen resilience over time. Combined with automation and AI-driven monitoring, such frameworks enable organizations to move from reactive recovery to predictive resilience, anticipating risks before they manifest.
The next frontier in resilience will be intelligent automation. Global leaders are already leveraging machine learning to detect anomalies in data flow, model cascading failures, and optimize recovery strategies. These capabilities are not futuristic; they are fast becoming essential for maintaining uptime in a multi-cloud, multi-regulatory environment.
Ultimately, resilience is not a standalone initiative; it is a continuous discipline. It requires collaboration between IT, security, compliance and leadership teams. More importantly, it requires a cultural shift: resilience must be treated not as an operational cost but as a strategic advantage that ensures business continuity and strengthens trust.
With cybercrime incidents in India surpassing 12 lakh cases by mid-2025, vigilance cannot be overstated. As organizations expand their digital footprint, the question is no longer whether they can recover from disruption, but whether they can adapt faster than the threats evolve. Data may be distributed, but responsibility must remain centralized and visible.