The accelerating shift to cloud-based systems has transformed the way modern businesses operate. Organizations of all sizes are leveraging the cloud for its scalability, flexibility, and cost efficiency. According to Fortune Business Insights, the global cloud storage market will expand from $161 billion in 2025 to $639 billion by 2032, underscoring the growing dependence on cloud environments such as AWS and Azure. However, with the increased use of the cloud, the need for cloud-native data protection solutions has become more urgent.
As data becomes vital to business operations, protecting it is more important than ever. Traditional and native cloud backup solutions often fall short in today’s complex multi-cloud environments, leaving businesses vulnerable to cyber threats, higher costs, and inefficiencies.
This blog discusses the limitations of legacy and native backups, the advantages of true cloud-native data protection, and how Druva’s fully managed solutions ensure business continuity and peace of mind.
The Rising Challenges of Cloud Adoption
Gartner predicts the Cloud Data Protection market will surge by 25%, rising from $7.13 billion in 2025 to an impressive $21.62 billion by 2030. While the advantages of cloud adoption are widely recognized, businesses continue to grapple with three major challenges in securing and managing their data effectively.
1. Cyber Threat Vulnerabilities
Native backup tools hold backup data within the same cloud as production environments, exposing it to ransomware, insider threats, and accidental deletions. These tools often lack air-gapped and immutable storage capabilities, which are critical for preventing data loss during cyberattacks or breaches. Without sufficient cyber resilience features, businesses risk noncompliance with stringent regulatory requirements.
2. Escalating Storage Costs
Snapshot-based backups from native tools lead to hidden egress fees, inefficient replication, and ballooning storage costs as data volumes grow. According to IDC, nearly 50% of cloud buyers overspent on cloud services in 2023, with 59% reporting they expected to overspend the following year. Long-term retention requirements further increase operational expenses, reducing the cost efficiency of native backup solutions.
3. Multi-Cloud Complexity and Compliance Gaps
Organizations increasingly operate across multiple cloud environments, but native tools often fail to provide cross-cloud protection. This results in management overhead, limited visibility, and potential compliance challenges, especially in regulated industries such as finance and healthcare. The lack of cross-cloud capabilities exposes businesses to risks of vendor lock-in and incomplete disaster recovery strategies.
6 Advantages of Cloud-Native Solutions
Cloud offers a distinct advantage for ensuring business continuity, including the following key attributes:
1. Scalability
The cloud offers virtually unlimited scalability, meaning businesses can rapidly grow their data storage requirements as needed. A cloud-native data protection solution is designed to handle this level of scalability, allowing businesses to seamlessly scale their backup and recovery capabilities in line with their growing data volumes.
2. Flexibility
Cloud-native data protection solutions are designed to work with a wide range of cloud environments, including public, private, and hybrid clouds. This flexibility means businesses can choose the cloud environment that best suits their needs, without having to worry about compatibility issues with their data protection solution.
3. Reduced Costs
Traditional backup solutions often require the purchase and maintenance of expensive hardware and software. In contrast, cloud-native data protection solutions are typically provided as a service, which means businesses can avoid these upfront costs and only pay for what they use. Additionally, by leveraging the cloud, businesses can benefit from the cost efficiencies of a shared infrastructure. See what your organization could save by switching to the cloud — use our cost saving calculator.
4. Enhanced Security
Cloud-native data protection solutions are specifically designed to operate in the cloud environment, which means they are built with security in mind. These solutions typically include multi-layered security features, such as encryption, zero-trust, and multi-factor authentication, which can help businesses to protect their data from cyber threats. See how Druva’s 100% SaaS data protection solution boosts organizations’ security posture and observability.
5. Simplified Management
Managing backups across a hybrid or multi-cloud environment can be a complex and time-consuming task. A cloud-native data protection solution can help simplify this process by providing a centralized management console that allows businesses to manage backups across all their cloud environments from a single location.
6. Rapid Recovery
In the event of data loss or a breach, such as one from ransomware, the ability to rapidly recover critical data is essential. Cloud-native data protection solutions are designed to provide accelerated recovery capabilities, allowing businesses to quickly restore data to its previous state and minimize the impact of any disruption.
Why True Cloud-Native Cyber Resilience Matters
True cloud-native cyber resilience goes beyond basic backup capabilities by offering comprehensive, secure, and cost-efficient data protection. Unlike traditional or native backups, cloud-native solutions are purpose-built to operate across diverse cloud environments, providing businesses with key benefits:
1. Air-Gapped Backups for Enhanced Security
True cloud-native solutions, like Druva, offer air-gapped backups stored in isolated cloud environments. This ensures that backups remain unaffected by ransomware, insider attacks, or accidental deletions. Additionally, advanced threat hunting capabilities proactively detect and quarantine risks, providing an extra layer of cyber defense.
2. Cost Efficiency Through Global Deduplication
Global deduplication and compression significantly optimize storage requirements, reducing backup costs by up to 40%. With no hidden egress fees and efficient replication processes, businesses can better manage their budgets and eliminate unpredictable expenses.
3. Simplified Management Across Clouds
Managing backups across hybrid and multi-cloud environments can be challenging. Cloud-native platforms streamline this process with unified, centralized management. Fully managed solutions eliminate the complexities of hardware or software maintenance, allowing IT teams to focus on strategic initiatives.
4. Seamless Multi-Cloud and Cross-Cloud Resilience
True cloud-native solutions support seamless backups across AWS, Azure, and beyond, ensuring enterprises are not tied to a single vendor. Cross-cloud resilience enhances disaster recovery capabilities, simplifies compliance for regulated industries, and ensures business continuity in the event of unforeseen disruptions.
Druva’s Cloud-Native Advantage
Cloud-native adoption is surging — but so are data threats, storage costs, and complexity. Waiting means more exposure and rising expenses. Druva is the only 100% SaaS data security vendor that delivers fully managed, direct cross-cloud backup — eliminating the need for multiple tools or infrastructure. With Druva, you get:
Fully agentless SaaS backup
True air-gapped, immutable data security
Zero infrastructure, zero egress fees
One platform across AWS, Azure, and more
Cross-cloud flexibility to future-proof your data protection strategy
Next Steps
As businesses continue to adopt cloud technologies, the need for cloud-native data protection solutions will only become more important. With its ability to provide scalability, flexibility, reduced costs, enhanced security, simplified management, and rapid recovery, cloud-native data protection is critical for ensuring business continuity in today's fast-paced digital environment.
Take the next step: Visit Druva's multi-cloud page to learn more.
