Data backup and recovery in SaaS environments can be complex, but at Keepit, we’re continually simplifying the process. With our Data Protection Dashboard, we’re delivering real-time insights via one centralized hub, providing the visibility needed to help enterprises manage their backups across SaaS applications like Microsoft 365 and Salesforce with confidence.

Our mission with this project is pretty simple: We want to give our users a centralized hub for all application dashboards, thereby simplifying monitoring, license usage, and anomaly detection to enhance cyber resilience and security.

What is observability, and why does it matter?

In the context of data protection, observability refers to the ability to gain deep visibility into operations, enabling teams to detect, diagnose, and address issues quickly and effectively. This is especially important for ensuring the reliability and effectiveness of backup and restore processes in complex SaaS environments. With enhanced observability, enterprises can maintain confidence in their data protection strategies and stay resilient against potential disruptions.

This focus on observability is what drives Keepit’s latest innovation: The Data Protection Dashboard. By providing real-time insights into backup and restore operations, the dashboard delivers centralized visibility, helping enterprises manage their backups across SaaS applications like Microsoft 365 and Salesforce with ease and confidence. Moreover, Keepit ensures a seamless user experience by supporting flexible transitions between different types of dashboards, tailored to the specific focus of a task at hand.

What is Keepit’s Data Protection Dashboard?

The Data Protection Dashboard is a workload-based tool designed to simplify and centralize the monitoring of all backups across SaaS environments. As a key aspect of observability, it provides real-time visibility into backup health, coverage, and integrity, offering actionable insights in one place. This centralized view enables users to monitor and manage backup and restore operations with ease, reducing complexity and enhancing operational efficiency.

A standout feature of the dashboard is its ability to support seamless transitions between different types of dashboards. This ensures a smooth user experience, allowing users to focus on specific tasks — whether it’s troubleshooting, compliance reporting, or scaling data protection efforts — without losing context or accessibility.

This flexibility reduces the need for users to switch between multiple tools or interfaces, ensuring their workflow remains uninterrupted while managing various tasks like compliance reporting or troubleshooting.

By tailoring the experience to the needs of the task at hand, Keepit ensures flexibility while maintaining comprehensive observability.

Why is a centralized hub for monitoring important?

Today, users are juggling multiple dashboards, each tied to a specific connector. While these dashboards provide some insights, they rarely offer the comprehensive, centralized visibility needed to make informed decisions — particularly at scale — and this brings challenges to visibility and difficulties in managing more complex integrations. For enterprises, this approach is simply not scalable nor sustainable, and ultimately, it leads to uncertainty.

By consolidating backup monitoring into one unified view, our Data Protection Dashboard provides a clear picture of backup operations across connectors and applications, enabling teams to stay on top of their data protection strategies.

This dashboard is part of Keepit’s ongoing effort to make observability more accessible and intuitive for our users, which ultimately strengthens data security and supports business continuity.

Key features of Keepit’s Data Protection Dashboard

1. Backup status overview

Gain quick insights into the operational state of your backups with a comprehensive status overview:

• Connector health status: Visual indicators highlight any critical issues.
• Snapshot activity insights: View the time of the latest snapshot, the number of snapshots created in the past 48 hours, and the total backup size.
• Recommended actions: Quickly identify and resolve issues at the connector level.

These insights ensure that your backup strategy stays on track, maintaining the resilience, compliance, and security of your data.

2. Backup coverage overview

This feature helps users identify potential gaps in their backup coverage, offering a granular view of data protection, and with historic insights:

• Workload division within applications: Displays selected workloads, such as Exchange or SharePoint, divided into individual areas within applications such as Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace.
• Coverage comparison: Highlights the number of units selected for backup versus those successfully covered, i.e., users can easily check if the coverage of the top-level SharePoint sites matches the selection. In this context, a “unit” refers to a specific entity, such as a top-level SharePoint site, while the “individual area” represents the overall SharePoint workload.
• Data size metrics: Provides details on the total size of each workload area.

This comparison ensures that enterprises can address any inconsistencies and maintain comprehensive data protection.

A note on retroactive data: The Data Protection Dashboard applies to backups created after its release date. Data backed up before the launch isn’t included in these new insights. 

3. Backup integrity monitoring (coming soon)

Aimed at reducing vulnerabilities, this upcoming feature monitors items that are recurrently skipped during backups:

• Skipped items list: Identify and download a detailed list of consistently skipped items.
• Proactive insights: Pinpoint potential vulnerabilities and share findings with support teams if needed.

This feature is especially valuable for enterprises aiming to refine their backup strategies and ensure maximum data integrity.

Benefits: Why accessible data insights matter

For enterprises managing complex SaaS environments, time is critical, and risks are high. Accessible and intuitive insights are not just convenient — they’re essential to effective SaaS data protection. The insights from Keepit’s Data Protection Dashboard:

• Enable faster action: Provide real-time visibility into backup health and coverage so teams can respond to issues before they escalate into larger problems.
• Bridge the gap between complexity and usability: Simplify the management of SaaS environments with complex configurations, including role-based access controls, compliance requirements, and varied workloads, making it easier to monitor backup health, spot vulnerabilities, and ensure compliance.
• Support the shared responsibility model: Help SaaS customers take ownership of their data protection responsibilities by providing the tools they need to secure and recover data effectively.
• Align observability with resilience: Ensure users can quickly identify and resolve issues, maintaining the integrity of their data protection strategy and facilitating faster recovery.
• Reduce risk: Minimize the chances of missed backups, incomplete coverage, or skipped items that could result in data loss.
• Boost compliance: Provide clear metrics and reports to make demonstrating adherence to regulatory standards and internal policies easier.
• Simplify scaling: Keep monitoring manageable as the number of workloads and connectors grows, enabling data protection to scale without adding complexity.

Ultimately, accessible insights give enterprises the confidence to protect their data, recover quickly, and maintain compliance in even the most complex SaaS environments.

Building a foundation for resilience

With the Data Protection Dashboard, Keepit is addressing a key challenge for modern enterprises: How to gain real-time, actionable insights into backup operations while managing complex SaaS environments. By providing a centralized hub, we’re helping organizations move away from fragmented dashboards toward a more unified and reliable approach to data protection.

The new dashboard is not just a feature; it’s a reflection of our commitment to improving observability and empowering enterprises to safeguard their critical data with confidence. As we continue to refine and expand its capabilities, our users will have even more tools to strengthen their backup strategies and ensure business continuity.

Stay tuned for updates as we roll out additional features and enhancements to the Data Protection Dashboard.

New funding will fuel Keepit’s global expansion and product innovation

Copenhagen, Denmark – December 16, 2024 – Keepit, the world’s only independent, cloud-native data protection and backup provider, today announced a $50 million funding round, led by existing investor One Peak , and EIFO, the Export and Investment Fund of Denmark. This funding round marks the company’s third equity investment in the past four years, bringing total funds raised to approximately $90 million.

The latest investment underscores Keepit’s rapid growth and solidifies its position as a leader in SaaS data protection. The new investment will be directed towards expanding the company’s go-to-market efforts and fueling continued product innovation.

Keepit’s mission to provide a vendor-independent, dedicated infrastructure for SaaS data protection has resonated with a broad range of enterprise customers as its solutions already support 5 million users globally. With its latest funding, Keepit is poised to accelerate its global expansion strategy, prioritizing key markets like the US, Europe, and other high-growth regions, while bolstering Keepit’s network of partners.

Simultaneously, Keepit plans to intensify its focus on product innovation, advancing its cutting edge, cloud native solutions to empower organizations in safeguarding their SaaS data effectively and reliably. This will include broader workload coverage and additional data management and intelligence capabilities for the enterprise.

“Our commitment to innovation and solving our customers’ most pressing data protection challenges is what drives us forward,” said Morten Felsvang, Keepit Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer and Frederik Schouboe, Keepit Co-founder and Chief Vision Officer. “This new funding will allow us to expand our reach and continue innovating the most advanced SaaS data protection solutions on the market. We’re thrilled to see such strong support from our investors, who understand our mission and share our vision for the future.”

David Klein, Co-founder and Managing Partner at One Peak, commented on the investment:
“We have been continually impressed by Keepit’s leadership and their unwavering ability to deliver on their vision. In a time when the need for secure, independent SaaS data protection is more critical than ever, Keepit stands out as a leader with its innovative platform. We are thrilled to continue supporting the Keepit team in this exciting next chapter of their growth journey.”

Jacob Bratting Pedersen, Managing Director, Partner & Head of Tech & Industry at EIFO, commented:
“Keepit’s focus on cloud-native, vendor-independent data protection is what sets them apart. This investment is not just a financial decision for us—it’s about supporting a company that is revolutionizing the way organizations think about data security. We believe in their long-term vision and look forward to contributing to their continued success.”

About One Peak

One Peak is a leading specialist growth equity firm with $2.0 billion in assets under management that invests in technology companies in the scale-up phase. One Peak provides growth capital, operating expertise, and access to its extensive network to exceptional entrepreneurs, with a view to help transform innovative and rapidly growing businesses into lasting, category-defining leaders. In addition to Keepit, One Peak’s investments include Akur8, Ardoq, Coro, Cymulate, Deepki, Docplanner, Lucca, Neo4J, Pandadoc, Spryker, and many more.

To learn more, visit www.onepeak.tech.

About EIFO, the Export and Investment Fund of Denmark

EIFO is the national promotional bank and export credit agency of Denmark combined in one financial institution. Active in over 100 countries, and with a total business volume of more than EUR 20 billion, EIFO provides financial solutions for Danish companies and their global partners, while also investing in startups and funds. We exist to open doors for Danish global business, accelerate the green transition, promote new technologies and develop the Danish defense industry. With our willingness to take risks in financing, EIFO paves the way for those who dare to think bigger.

Keepit was honored in three categories: Cloud Security, Data Loss Prevention and Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity.

COPENHAGEN, DENMARK, December 13, 2024 – Keepit, a global provider of a comprehensive cloud backup and recovery platform, is proud to announce it has been recognized at the prestigious 2024 Security Today CyberSecured Awards. The company secured top honors in three categories: Cloud Security, Data Loss Prevention and Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity.

·       WINNER #1 in the category: Data Loss Prevention

·       WINNER #2 in the category: Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity

·       WINNER #3 in the category: Cloud Security (Tie)

Security Today, a leading source for security professionals, unveiled the winners in a press release, recognizing Keepit’s outstanding contributions to the cybersecurity landscape. The CyberSecured Awards celebrate innovation and excellence in cybersecurity solutions.

“The Keepit platform helps companies future-proof their businesses against ever-increasing cyberthreats. With our industry-leading backup and recovery capabilities, companies can rely on continued access to business-critical data, even if they’re targeted by cyberattacks. We’re honored that the Keepit platform was recognized by Security Today’s CyberSecured Awards”,” says Michele Hayes, CMO at Keepit.

Keepit’s commitment to innovation, security, and reliability has positioned the company as a leader in the cybersecurity industry. The Keepit platform was recognized in four categories at the Top Infosec Innovator 2024 Awards, including “Cutting Edge Cloud Backup”, “Most Innovative Cyber Resilience”, “Hot Company Data Security Platform” and “Hot Company Ransomware Protection of SaaS Data”.

Keepit has been awarded “Best Green Initiative” by the Business Awards UK, 2024 Corporate Sustainability Awards.

Copenhagen, Denmark – November 29, 2024 – Keepit, a global provider of a comprehensive cloud backup and recovery platform, today announced it has been awarded “Best Green Initiative” by the Business Awards UK, 2024 Corporate Sustainability Awards. Keepit’s data centers in the Americas and EMEA have been powered by 100% renewable energy since 2023.

Headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark, with offices in the US, Germany, and the UK, Keepit counts The National Gallery and Oxford University Innovation Ltd among its UK customers.

“Keepit prides itself in having built its whole operation efficiently, with sustainability in mind. Providing our customers with the ability to secure their data on our platform, knowing we’re also doing our part to reduce environmental impact, is important to us as a company”, says Michele Hayes, CMO at Keepit.

Keepit’s continuing commitment to sustainability

Since 2023, all Keepit’s data centers in the Americas and EMEA have been powered by 100% renewable energy. Keepit reached this important green energy milestone ahead of other cloud-based backup vendors.

Keepit constructed its technology stack from the ground up, specifically designing it to efficiently address data storage challenges. This approach reflects a commitment to optimizing resource utilization and delivering a service that is not only effective but also resource efficient. Read more about Keepit’s commitment to sustainability.

Keepit platform was also named “Best Cybersecurity Backup Service” by Business Awards UK, 2024 Cybersecurity and Resilience Awards.

Here’s why you might want to double check 

How confident are you that your organization’s critical SaaS data is fully protected? If you’re not entirely sure, you’re not alone. A recent survey by Gatepoint Research of executive- and director-level respondents revealed that only 28% of IT and security executives feel fully confident in their current SaaS data protection and resilience measures. With SaaS applications like Microsoft 365 and Salesforce now essential to business operations across industries, ensuring SaaS data backup and recovery is crucial — and it’s becoming more challenging.

In a recent webinar, I talked about what these survey findings show about the state of SaaS data protection today — and why businesses need to rethink their approach to keeping their SaaS data secure. This article highlights the biggest takeaways from that conversation to help guide you on what your SaaS backup strategy should cover.

The shared responsibility model: Who’s really responsible for SaaS data protection?

When businesses move data to the cloud, many assume that providers like Microsoft, Google, or Salesforce have them covered. It’s a reasonable expectation — after all, if they’re securing the infrastructure, shouldn’t they also be responsible for protecting the data?

In reality, SaaS providers all operate under a shared responsibility model: They protect the application, but the responsibility for complete data backup falls squarely on the customer. The SaaS provider generally promises not to lose all your data at once, but they don’t necessarily protect your critical business data from deletion, corruption, encryption, or loss. It’s up to you to have a backup plan in place for your cyber resilience. Without an independent backup and recovery solution in place, data can be lost, leading to operational disruptions, compliance issues, and reputational damage.

Misunderstanding the shared responsibility model can lead to disastrous consequences, and the complexities around SaaS data protection underscores one of the reasons why so many executives express low confidence in their SaaS data protection measures.

Confidence crisis: Why so many executives are concerned about their SaaS data

The survey results show that 31% of executives weren’t confident in their SaaS data protection measures. This low confidence stems from several factors, including:

• Compliance and regulatory pressures: Global compliance regulations, from GDPR to NIS2 and DORA, demand that organizations maintain control over their data and prove that it’s secure. This is challenging, as regulations are evolving faster than many companies can adapt, increasing pressure on data governance and compliance. For example, DORA mandates that businesses in the financial industry maintain backup environments segregated from production environments to reduce risk.
• Increased risks from external factors: The frequency and severity of cyberthreats, such as ransomware, only continues to grow. With the advent of ransomware as a service (RaaS), the number of threat actors only stands to increase.
• Data growth and scalability: As more companies adopt SaaS applications, the volume of data continues to grow exponentially, making traditional backup strategies insufficient and underscoring the need for scalable solutions.
• Complexities in SaaS data backup: Many organizations rely on built-in SaaS backup tools that may not offer the robustness needed to guarantee data integrity and protection from threats like ransomware or accidental deletion, such as data immutability and air gapping.

Key challenges organizations face with SaaS data protection

The survey also delved into some of the key challenges executives say they face. Some of these are related to the reasons they don’t feel confident, but I was interested to see a couple of unique challenges reflected in their answers:

• Increasing compliance demands: Regulations like GDPR, NIS2, and DORA are forcing organizations to implement rigorous data protection measures. These compliance requirements are constantly evolving, leaving companies racing to keep up.
• Rapid growth of data: As SaaS usage increases, so does the volume of data, creating scalability challenges for organizations. Traditional backup solutions often fall short when managing the vast amount of data in today’s SaaS environments.
• Managing multiple backup vendors: Many companies juggle multiple backup providers across different SaaS platforms. This fragmented approach can make it difficult to enforce consistent data protection policies, and it increases the risk of gaps in coverage. The average number of SaaS apps used by “workplaces in transition” is more than 120, according to BetterCloud.

These issues compound the challenges organizations face in securing their SaaS data, especially when operating without a clear strategy or dedicated backup vendor.

What’s true SaaS data backup and what should it include?

To overcome these challenges, organizations need reliable backup solutions that are purpose-built for SaaS data. In this case, “purpose-built” really means that they’re built on an independent cloud infrastructure that ensures your data is protected, accessible, and separated from the production environment of the SaaS provider. This approach provides the ultimate safety net, enabling you to recover and restore data independently of your SaaS provider’s infrastructure. It’s why I call such a system a true backup, not just another copy of the data.

True backup also means maintaining immutable copies — versions of your data that can’t be altered, even by the most sophisticated threats. In recent years, ransomware attacks and malicious insiders have targeted cloud data, leading to data loss or corruption. A truly immutable backup, stored independently, can withstand these threats, ensuring that your data is always recoverable.

Of course, this isn’t a comprehensive list. If you’d like to read more about the top considerations for backup and recovery solutions, read our top 10 for RFP blog.

The ROI of backup and recovery

A dedicated SaaS data backup solution might seem like just another expense, but it brings considerable return on investment. Data loss or downtime can lead to significant financial impacts, both directly and indirectly. From potential fines for non-compliance to revenue loss due to service interruptions, the costs of not having a backup far outweigh the investment in a robust solution. You can also leverage cost avoidance in SaaS licensing fees with some backup providers. A comprehensive SaaS data backup strategy also protects your organization against reputational damage by ensuring uninterrupted service.

Practical steps to increase SaaS data protection confidence

Regular testing and clear data classification are crucial parts of any backup strategy. Here are a few takeaways for organizations looking to improve their SaaS data protection:

• Identify and classify your data: Identify what data is critical to your business and prioritize its protection. Knowing what information is most essential enables you to focus on securing the assets that would be most damaging to lose.
• Test and verify backup and recovery processes: Confidence in data protection comes from testing, so schedule regular recovery tests to ensure backups are complete and easily recoverable. Make sure multiple team members are trained to handle recovery to avoid dependence on a single individual.
• Evaluate your current backup solution: Check if your current backup solution meets modern standards of immutability, independence, and compliance. If your SaaS data is only partially covered or stored in the same environment as production data, it might be time to look for a more comprehensive solution.

Moving forward with a proactive approach to SaaS data protection

Ultimately, the goal is to be able to move from a state of “moderate confidence” to one of complete assurance. Data breaches and regulatory penalties are on the rise, and so investing in a robust, independent backup strategy is no longer optional. A true backup solution (one which stores backup data copies in a cloud independent from the production data) will not only help you meet compliance standards but will also provide the resilience and continuity your organization needs to thrive. Read more about creating a cybersecurity framework.

Another key takeaway is this: If your backup data is stored in the same place as your production data, it’s not really a backup. By investing in a purpose-built solution, you’re protecting data AND you’re strengthening your organization’s resilience by creating a safety net that keeps your business running smoothly, even in a crisis or SaaS provider outage. Learn more about air gapping.

In the end, confidence in your SaaS data protection isn’t just a nice-to-have; it’s a competitive advantage. Take the steps today to make sure your data is secure, accessible, and always within reach.

Takeaway: Backup isn’t just a safety net; it’s a strategic investment

Ultimately, having a true backup strategy for SaaS applications is not just about preventing worst-case scenarios. It’s a proactive step that empowers your organization to maintain control over its data, ensure regulatory compliance, and prevent costly downtime. By implementing a reliable SaaS data backup solution, you’re investing in resilience and building confidence that your business can withstand unexpected events, from cyberattacks to accidental deletions.

The lesson is clear: Don’t wait for a crisis to rethink your data protection. Take action today to safeguard your SaaS data with a robust, purpose-built backup solution that keeps your organization’s data secure, compliant, and always within reach.