Intelligent data governance: Why IT decision-makers should focus on taking control of their data

Data control is the foundation for everything — from implementing new technologies like AI to ensuring cyber resilience and compliance. Intelligent data governance equips organizations with tools to lay a sustainable foundation for business continuity.

The evolving cybersecurity landscape 

Through speaking with IT leaders around the world, I’ve found that one of the main issues facing modern organizations is data governance — and, naturally, the question of how to approach it efficiently while addressing today’s cybersecurity demands.

These firsthand experiences align with findings from qualitative research Keepit conducted a few months ago. We interviewed 30 senior IT leaders across different industries about the critical role data control plays in business resilience.

Our research revealed that CIOs and CISOs understand the increasingly vital roles they play in ensuring business continuity and resilience amid ever-evolving threat landscape. They also recognize the immense effort required to prioritize tools, resources, and tasks to establish and maintain strong data governance for long-term business continuity.

Rather than just outlining their concerns and challenges, we went a step further: We created a report to help CIOs and CISOs navigate data resilience in their organizations. It provides actionable guidance on implementing a sustainable data governance framework — along with the reasoning behind it.

The report, “Intelligent data governance: Why taking control of your data is key for operational continuity and innovation,” serves as a valuable and in-depth resource for building cyber resilience.

Download the report

 

Defining data governance and data classification

So, what is data governance and how does it relate to cyber resilience?

Existing under the broad umbrella of data management, data governance is a program — implemented via policies and standards — intended to ensure the availability, quality, and security of an organization’s data in accordance with applicable regulations and obligations (e.g., adhering to industry standards, fulfilling requirements for certifications, etc.).

Within data governance, data classification is the process of separating and organizing data into relevant groups (“classes”) based on their shared characteristics, such as the level of sensitivity, risks they present, and the compliance regulations that protect them.

Data governance underpins cyber resilience plans

An intelligent data governance program delivers several beneficial outcomes for organizations:

  • It helps to ensure the availability, quality, and security of an organization’s data, making it a foundational pillar of business continuity.
  • Data governance helps improve overall data accuracy and impacts outcomes based on that data — which can range from comparatively simple day-to-day business decisions and operations to more complex, forward-looking initiatives including AI-focused programs.
  • It helps to support organizational efforts to comply with regulations and other obligations, making it a cornerstone of compliance.
  • An effective data governance program also permeates the entire organization, increasing data literacy, data accessibility, and data scalability.

Do you know where your data is?

Of course, disaster recovery planning cannot start without a clear understanding and mapping of your data and its significance to your business. What data is crucial for us to continue running our operations? Who needs access to which data to do their job? Where do we store all of this critical data?

Knowing the answers to these questions will start your journey towards ensuring continuity in cases of data loss or cyberattacks. This is achieved through an efficient and effective data governance framework.

I hope that, with our new report in hand, CISOs and CIOs will be able to future-proof their modern, data-driven enterprises through effective data governance.

About Keepit’s new report, “Intelligent data governance: Why taking control of your data is key for operational continuity and innovation.”

Our report takes a practical approach to data governance by offering a resource to organizations for creating or adopting a framework that works best for them.

Key takeaways from the report:

-Major trends shaping enterprise IT

-The importance of “always-on” data

-Resilience against data loss and corruption

-Data governance as an investment

-A practical approach to data governance

-10 questions for board discussions

Get the full report

Data governanceCyber resilienceData protectionIT leadership

About Keepit
At Keepit, we believe in a digital future where all software is delivered as a service. Keepit’s mission is to protect data in the cloud Keepit is a software company specializing in Cloud-to-Cloud data backup and recovery. Deriving from +20 year experience in building best-in-class data protection and hosting services, Keepit is pioneering the way to secure and protect cloud data at scale.

About Version 2 Digital

Version 2 Digital is one of the most dynamic IT companies in Asia. The company distributes a wide range of IT products across various areas including cyber security, cloud, data protection, end points, infrastructures, system monitoring, storage, networking, business productivity and communication products.

Through an extensive network of channels, point of sales, resellers, and partnership companies, Version 2 offers quality products and services which are highly acclaimed in the market. Its customers cover a wide spectrum which include Global 1000 enterprises, regional listed companies, different vertical industries, public utilities, Government, a vast number of successful SMEs, and consumers in various Asian cities.

Intelligent resilience: The future of SaaS data protection

Today, data isn’t just important, it’s everything. This puts data resilience at the center of business continuity. Increasingly, more and more business-critical data lives in SaaS applications: according to BetterCloud organizations use an average of 112 SaaS aps in 2024. That number was 80 in 2020. And according to analyst firm Forrester, eighty-two percent of enterprise cloud decision-makers say that their organizations have adopted or are adopting public cloud. The challenge? Protecting that data from loss, corruption, or cyber threats—without disrupting day-to-day operations – becomes more complicated in the cloud. It also becomes critical to get it right, which means not just prioritizing the ability to recover from data loss, but also prioritizing the capabilities and foresight to stay ahead of risks in the first place. In other words, “intelligent resilience” —making smart choices before disaster strikes and future-proofing your SaaS data so your business keeps running, no matter what.

What does intelligent resilience look like?

Achieving intelligent resilience requires a proactive approach. At Keepit, we break it down to four steps:
  •  Identify what data needs protection.
  •  Identify risks—and how to mitigate them.
  •  Identify the right tools and partners.
  • Test and implement what you’ve learned for a safer tomorrow.
Sounds simple, right? But not all data protection solutions are built for intelligent resilience. Many are adapted from legacy systems or come with hidden costs and complexity. Keepit takes a different approach: As global experts in SaaS data protection, we’ve purpose-built a cloud platform that ensures businesses can recover and restore their data without delay. But we also take backup and recovery a step further.

Keepit is intelligently built

Not all backup solutions are created equal. Many legacy vendors have repurposed on-premise technology for the cloud—but retrofitting doesn’t always mean readiness. Keepit is cloud-native and purpose-built for SaaS environments.
  • Scalable and adaptive. Unlike on-prem solutions forced into the cloud, Keepit scales seamlessly as your business grows.
  • Purpose-built for SaaS. Our solution is designed to work smoothly across applications, ensuring seamless protection.
Security is at the core of everything we do. Keepit employs AES encryption directly on our storage systems and ensures end-to-end encryption both in transit and at rest. Our traffic flows securely over major internet exchanges, eliminating unnecessary exposure. And most importantly, our backups are immutable by design. That means once data is stored, it cannot be changed or deleted—guaranteeing true protection against ransomware attacks or accidental deletions.

Keepit delivers intelligent insights and recovery

Backing up data is just one part of the equation. The real value comes from how quickly and efficiently you can access, restore, and act on that data. Instant access to all versions of your data 
  • No waiting for hydration periods—data can be previewed, shared, or restored instantly.
  • An intuitive search function and audit logs make it easy to track changes.
Flexible restore options 
  • Recover data in bulk or at a granular level, ensuring fast and precise restoration.
Actionable insights 
  • A centralized dashboard provides real-time visibility into backup and recovery health.
  • Early warnings help detect anomalies or threats before they become major issues.
  • Integration with security tools ensures data protection is part of a broader security strategy.
Transparency and accountability 
  • Custom reports document compliance and disaster recovery readiness, giving businesses confidence in their resilience strategy.

Keepit is the intelligent choice

Choosing the right data protection solution isn’t just about features—it’s about value. Keepit is built to be cost-effective, time-saving, and independent.  Predictable and stable cost
  • Simple, seat-based pricing with unlimited storage
  • No hidden fees—no charges for data ingress, egress, or transfer.
  • Customizable retention, ensuring you store what you need for as long as you need it.
Time-saving usability
  • No maintenance or infrastructure required—freeing up IT teams for core business initiatives.
  • Easy setup and an intuitive interface ensure rapid adoption.
Vendor-independent cloud in your chosen region
  • Keepit operates independent data centers in seven regions across three continents.
  • Our fully separate backup environment ensures your data is never tied to the same infrastructure as your production environment.
Resilience starts with intelligent choices Intelligent resilience isn’t just about recovering from failure—it’s about staying ahead of it. Keepit empowers businesses to protect their most valuable asset—data—without complexity, hidden costs, or vendor lock-in. Because in today’s digital world, data resilience isn’t optional. It’s essential. Keepit: Intelligent data protection for today and tomorrow.

Keepit is on a mission to bring intelligent resilience to the world. Join us in a city near you

About Keepit
At Keepit, we believe in a digital future where all software is delivered as a service. Keepit’s mission is to protect data in the cloud Keepit is a software company specializing in Cloud-to-Cloud data backup and recovery. Deriving from +20 year experience in building best-in-class data protection and hosting services, Keepit is pioneering the way to secure and protect cloud data at scale.

About Version 2 Digital

Version 2 Digital is one of the most dynamic IT companies in Asia. The company distributes a wide range of IT products across various areas including cyber security, cloud, data protection, end points, infrastructures, system monitoring, storage, networking, business productivity and communication products.

Through an extensive network of channels, point of sales, resellers, and partnership companies, Version 2 offers quality products and services which are highly acclaimed in the market. Its customers cover a wide spectrum which include Global 1000 enterprises, regional listed companies, different vertical industries, public utilities, Government, a vast number of successful SMEs, and consumers in various Asian cities.

Keepit webinar series: An intelligent approach to cyber resilience through data governance strategies

Webinar to offer practical approaches to optimize data management, communicate strategies to leadership, and enhance organizational resilience

COPENHAGEN, DENMARK, February 14, 2025 – Keepit, a global provider of a comprehensive cloud backup and recovery platform, today announced that it will be hosting a webinar titled, “Data Governance meets Recovery: An Intelligent Approach to Resilience”, on Thursday, February 20, 2025.

 

Keepit’s Kim Larsen, Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) will be joined by Ulf Feger, CISO Advisory Services, vCISO, and NIS2 Directive Senior Lead Implementer[1] , a cybersecurity leader with extensive global experience across IT and OT security. In the session, they will cover governance strategies, aligning disaster recovery strategies with executive priorities, and integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into recovery plans.

 

“Business leaders today must manage rapid data growth while countering sophisticated cyberthreats, making effective data governance crucial for a robust business continuity strategy,” said Larsen. “This informative and practical webinar will help audiences understand how robust data governance, extending beyond the CISO’s office, underpins a resilient disaster recovery strategy.”

 

Key takeaways from the webinar will include:

 

●     Effective data governance models and approaches

●     Disaster recovery planning considering the impact of AI

●     Techniques for data prioritization and classification

●     Structuring recovery plans and conducting incident investigation.

 

WHAT: Webinar: Data Governance meets Recovery: An Intelligent Approach to Resilience

 

WHEN: Thursday, February 20, 2025 at 10:00 a.m. EST/4 p.m. CET

 

WHO:  Kim Larsen, CISO, Keepit

Ulf Feger, CISO Advisory Services, vCISO, and NIS2 Directive Senior Lead Implementer

 

REGISTRATION: Sign up here

 

Participants that cannot attend live will receive a recording of the webinar. And all registrants will receive exclusive access to the latest report from Kim Larsen: “Intelligent data governance

Why taking control of your data is key for operational continuity and innovation.”

About Keepit
At Keepit, we believe in a digital future where all software is delivered as a service. Keepit’s mission is to protect data in the cloud Keepit is a software company specializing in Cloud-to-Cloud data backup and recovery. Deriving from +20 year experience in building best-in-class data protection and hosting services, Keepit is pioneering the way to secure and protect cloud data at scale.

About Version 2 Digital

Version 2 Digital is one of the most dynamic IT companies in Asia. The company distributes a wide range of IT products across various areas including cyber security, cloud, data protection, end points, infrastructures, system monitoring, storage, networking, business productivity and communication products.

Through an extensive network of channels, point of sales, resellers, and partnership companies, Version 2 offers quality products and services which are highly acclaimed in the market. Its customers cover a wide spectrum which include Global 1000 enterprises, regional listed companies, different vertical industries, public utilities, Government, a vast number of successful SMEs, and consumers in various Asian cities.

Scalability: Building for the future by starting right today

From SaaS platforms supporting millions of users to APIs enabling seamless integrations, scalability is foundational for businesses to thrive in 2025 and beyond. Yet, achieving true scalability remains elusive for many organizations. The challenges lie not only in the tools we use but in the very architecture of the systems we build.

The scalability bottleneck: APIs under strain

APIs are the glue that binds modern digital ecosystems, enabling systems to communicate and work together. However, many APIs today face significant bottlenecks. For instance, with SaaS service APIs that vendors offer up for general use, we see everything from explicit throttling (e.g., “come back later” type responses) to slow responses or outright intermittent failures. These common issues limit their usefulness, and as businesses grow and integration demands increase, these bottlenecks become critical barriers. For us to move forward with better and tighter integrations between systems, we need the APIs to scale to higher volume use. An API that can’t handle high volumes is effectively pointless. The value of an API lies in its reliability and capacity — usable not just occasionally or under ideal conditions but consistently and at scale. Without this, businesses are left with “just enough” functionality that falls short of real-world demands.

Is the root cause architectural complexity?

Probably. It’s difficult to know what the limiting factors are from the outside, but it appears that one of the biggest challenges to scalability is that some services — for one reason or another, which I’ll get into later — are built on an architecture that is difficult to scale to higher volume use. The truth is that many services today are built on architectures that were never designed to handle the scale they now face. (More on this in the next section.) For example, a service dependent on a central database might experience diminishing returns when additional API front-end nodes are introduced. The database becomes a choke point — an architectural bottleneck that cannot be overcome by merely adding resources. Elastic scaling promises easy solutions, but in reality, scaling a service often requires more than increasing hardware resources. It demands a foundational shift in how the system is designed. Retrofitting a system to scale can be akin to replacing the foundation of a house while living in it —technically possible but fraught with challenges and runaway costs.

The high cost of shortcuts

In the rush to bring products to market, startups often face immense pressure to deliver something they can showcase to stakeholders, investors, or potential customers. To meet these demands, it’s tempting to cobble together systems that “mostly fit.” This approach allows them to quickly demonstrate the viability of their idea and gain early traction. However, this expediency often comes at a significant long-term cost. The patchwork nature of such systems creates an underlying complexity that is difficult — and sometimes impossible — to scale effectively. Early success can mask these architectural flaws, and as the product gains market traction, securing business approval for a complete re-architecture becomes increasingly difficult. After all, why invest in fixing something that appears to be working? The irony is that while these shortcuts may save time initially, they often result in delays, frustrations, and limitations in the long run. Organizations find themselves unable to “throw hardware at the problem,” as the underlying complexity prevents effective scaling. Importantly for the fast-moving startups, investors are not blind to this either — technical due diligence is undertaken precisely to uncover if the proverbial castle is built on sand.

The way forward: Simplicity in architecture

To build scalable systems, simplicity must be the guiding principle. It must be built on the “simplest possible” architecture. As the saying goes, “All computers wait at the same speed.” No amount of hardware can compensate for a poorly designed architecture. Simplicity not only reduces costs and increases reliability but also lays the groundwork for systems that can grow seamlessly with demand. This requires a shift in industry mindset. Businesses and engineers alike must prioritize proper engineering and thoughtful architecture from the outset. While the benefits of this approach may not be immediately apparent, they will pay dividends over the lifecycle of the system.

A call to action: Invest in good design

The best way to solve scalability challenges is to avoid creating them in the first place. This begins in the architectural phase of development. Engineers must approach design with a critical eye, recognizing that complexity is the enemy of scalability. Businesses must be willing to invest in thoughtful engineering, even if it means slowing down initial development to build systems that will last. “Slow down to go fast” may be a platitude, but it holds true when it comes to scalability. While easy to say, it requires hard decisions and deliberate effort to design scalable systems from the outset. Thoughtfully built systems not only handle current demands but will scale seamlessly as needs evolve.

Conclusion: Building for a scalable future

Scalability is not just a technical challenge — it’s a strategic imperative. Organizations that succeed in 2025 and beyond will be those that prioritize simplicity, invest in thoughtful architecture, and resist the temptation to cut corners. By addressing scalability challenges head-on, businesses can build systems that not only meet today’s needs but are ready to grow with the demands of tomorrow. The future of scalability is in our hands: Let’s design it deliberately.

About Keepit
At Keepit, we believe in a digital future where all software is delivered as a service. Keepit’s mission is to protect data in the cloud Keepit is a software company specializing in Cloud-to-Cloud data backup and recovery. Deriving from +20 year experience in building best-in-class data protection and hosting services, Keepit is pioneering the way to secure and protect cloud data at scale.

About Version 2 Digital

Version 2 Digital is one of the most dynamic IT companies in Asia. The company distributes a wide range of IT products across various areas including cyber security, cloud, data protection, end points, infrastructures, system monitoring, storage, networking, business productivity and communication products.

Through an extensive network of channels, point of sales, resellers, and partnership companies, Version 2 offers quality products and services which are highly acclaimed in the market. Its customers cover a wide spectrum which include Global 1000 enterprises, regional listed companies, different vertical industries, public utilities, Government, a vast number of successful SMEs, and consumers in various Asian cities.

Keepit receives 2024 Backup and Disaster Recovery Award from Cloud Computing Magazine

Keepit platform honored at the 2024 Backup and Disaster Recovery Awards, underscoring the company’s commitment to intelligent recovery.

  

Copenhagen, Denmark – January 27 – Keepit, a global provider of a comprehensive cloud backup and recovery platform, announced today that TMC, a global, integrated media company, has named the Keepit platform as a 2024 Cloud Computing Backup and Disaster Recovery Award winner, presented by TMC’s Cloud Computing Magazine.

Headquartered in Copenhagen with offices and data centers globally, Keepit future-proofs cloud data for organizations, ensuring business continuity and access to information.

 

The Cloud Computing Backup and Disaster Recovery Award recognizes technologies and vendors that have built cloud solutions that empower businesses small or large to remain active and productive under even the most challenging conditions, minimizing lost business opportunities.

 

“Intelligent recovery is the cornerstone of data resilience. By ensuring your SaaS data is always secure, you can be confident in your business continuity plan. The Keepit platform makes it easy to prepare for the worst, while also enhancing current business practices through cost-efficient data protection. We’re excited to receive this honor from Cloud Computing Magazine,” says Michele Hayes, CMO at Keepit.

 

“Recognizing excellence in the advancement of cloud computing technologies, Cloud Computing magazine is proud to announce the Keepit platform as a recipient of the Cloud Computing Backup and Disaster Recovery Award,” said Rich Tehrani, CEO, TMC. “Keepit is being honored for their achievement in bringing innovation to the market, while leveraging the latest technology trends.”

 

About Keepit
At Keepit, we believe in a digital future where all software is delivered as a service. Keepit’s mission is to protect data in the cloud Keepit is a software company specializing in Cloud-to-Cloud data backup and recovery. Deriving from +20 year experience in building best-in-class data protection and hosting services, Keepit is pioneering the way to secure and protect cloud data at scale.

About Version 2 Digital

Version 2 Digital is one of the most dynamic IT companies in Asia. The company distributes a wide range of IT products across various areas including cyber security, cloud, data protection, end points, infrastructures, system monitoring, storage, networking, business productivity and communication products.

Through an extensive network of channels, point of sales, resellers, and partnership companies, Version 2 offers quality products and services which are highly acclaimed in the market. Its customers cover a wide spectrum which include Global 1000 enterprises, regional listed companies, different vertical industries, public utilities, Government, a vast number of successful SMEs, and consumers in various Asian cities.