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How Deduplication is Leaving you Exposed to Ransomware

Sophia Barnett avatarSB
Sophia Barnett · 5 min to read
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For years, deduplication appliances were viewed as a breakthrough in backup storage solutions. They reduced storage costs, minimized infrastructure footprints, and helped IT teams manage growing volumes of data more easily.

But today, those same appliances are quickly becoming liabilities for businesses. AI-driven ransomware presents new dangers in combating cybersecurity by accelerating attack speeds and surfaces, growing more unpredictable, and becoming harder to detect. Dedupe, simply put, wasn’t built to defend your data against these kinds of threats.

Data integrity and recoverability speed aren’t nice-to-haves—they're mission-critical. And yet, many organizations continue to choose deduplication systems even as those systems consistently fall short on both security and recovery performance.

The Problem No One Talks About

Deduplication works by eliminating redundant data blocks, which sounds great—until you need to restore that data. Rehydration, the process of reconstructing files from fragmented segments, can slow recovery to a crawl. In high-pressure scenarios like Instant VM Recovery, this delay is a critical failure point.

Even worse, deduplication often requires turning off end-to-end encryption to function properly, exposing your data during processing and leaving it vulnerable to breaches—even if it's been labeled as “immutable” by your storage solution.

Efficiency vs. Resilience: A Dangerous Trade-Off

In a world where ransomware recovery is measured in seconds and immutable backups are the difference between paying the ransom or not, deduplication’s trade-offs are no longer acceptable. Security, performance, and recoverability must come first. Storage savings are meaningless if you can’t restore your systems when it matters most.

So what’s the alternative?

A New Approach to Backup Protection

Modern backup strategies are shifting toward immutability-first designs prioritizing encryption, access control, and Zero Trust principles. These systems don’t just store data—they protect it. And they’re built to recover fast, even under attack.

If you’re still relying on deduplication appliances as your frontline defense, it’s time to rethink your strategy.

Download our latest solution brief to explore:

  • The hidden risks of deduplication in encrypted environments
  • Why rehydration delays are a recovery killer
  • How object storage with built-in immutability changes the game
  • What makes Object First’s Ootbi (Out-of-the-Box Immutability) a secure-by-default alternative for Veeam users

Don’t wait until your recovery fails. Learn how to secure your backup infrastructure today.

Read the Full Brief

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