It’s that time of year, when Business Link Magazine invites the region’s business leaders to offer up their predictions for the year ahead.
It has become something of a tradition, given that we’ve been doing this now for over 30 years.
Here we speak to Richard May, CEO of Leeds-based tech company virtualDCS and an expert in disaster recovery and cybersecurity.
- Cyber resilience will continue to define disaster recovery in 2025
Traditional DR strategies anchored on natural disasters are no longer enough. In 2025, the continued rise of sophisticated cyberattacks like ransomware and data breaches will redefine disaster recovery entirely. Organisations must fully integrate cybersecurity into their DR plans, treating threats like data theft and exfiltration as top-tier risks. Recovery strategies will shift focus from downtime minimisation to comprehensive breach mitigation, ensuring businesses can recover data and rebuild stakeholder trust.
- Survival hinges on the speed of recovery in 2025
In 2025, speed will become the ultimate differentiator in the face of cyber incidents. With breaches taking longer to detect and contain, organisations that fail to invest in rapid restoration technologies risk prolonged downtime, reputational damage, and client attrition. Advanced failover systems, automated recovery tools, and real-time monitoring will no longer be a luxury – they will be critical for businesses looking to maintain competitive advantage.
- Closing the Microsoft 365 responsibility gap will become a top priority
Reliance on cloud platforms like Microsoft 365 will continue to grow, but 2025 will see organisations take accountability for their data protection under the shared responsibility model. Businesses can no longer assume their data is inherently safe. Instead, proactive measures, such as third-party backup solutions and robust configuration monitoring, will be essential to prevent accidental losses and counteract growing cyber threats.
- Diversified backup strategies will be non-negotiable
As cybercriminals increasingly target both live systems and backups, the principle of geographic and provider diversification will become non-negotiable. In 2025, businesses must verify that backups exist in entirely separate environments to withstand worst-case scenarios. Those who fail to decouple backup storage from live operations will risk total compromise in the event of a breach.
- Proactive preparedness will drive strategic resilience
From the NHS Synnovis breach to the British Library and Transport for London (TfL) cyberattacks, 2024 offered hard lessons on how unpreparedness compounds the fallout of cyber incidents. In 2025, businesses will no longer have the luxury of reactive planning. Comprehensive incident response plans must account for every stage of a breach, from containment to recovery, regulatory compliance, and customer communication.
