As geopolitical instability and cyber threats escalate worldwide, disaster recovery (DR) and data protection have become mission-critical for businesses across the Middle East. From state-sponsored cyberattacks to sanctions and regional connectivity disruptions, companies face increasing pressure to ensure data resilience and operational continuity in the face of growing uncertainty.
The Shifting Risk Landscape
Traditionally, DR strategies focused on natural disasters and technical outages. But today, geopolitical risks—such as cyber warfare, cross-border sanctions, and infrastructure sabotage—pose equal, if not greater, threats. For Middle Eastern enterprises operating in sensitive sectors like finance, oil and gas, government, and telecom, these risks demand advanced, geo-aware disaster recovery architectures.
Mark Molyneux, Chief Technology Officer, EMEA at Cohesity, explains that modern DR must address these geopolitical realities with resilient, intelligent design. “Cohesity’s data recovery solution ensures business continuity through immutable backups, air-gapped protection via FortKnox, and automated failover with SiteContinuity. These capabilities help organizations quickly recover from attacks or outages while maintaining compliance with data sovereignty laws.”
Distributed and Cross-Border Recovery
To prepare for region-specific conflicts or government-imposed restrictions, cross-border and multi-cloud DR strategies are increasingly essential. Cohesity supports this with CloudArchive and CloudReplicate, enabling replication across geographies and platforms like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud.
“This ensures access to critical data even if specific regions face conflict or regulatory disruption,” Molyneux adds.
Islam Afifi, Regional Director of Technical Sales, Middle East & CIS at Veeam, echoes the need for geographical flexibility. “With Veeam, customers can back up and replicate their data across a combination of on-premises, public cloud, and trusted service provider environments—spanning different countries and continents. This enables seamless failover if a region is impacted by a state-sponsored attack, sanctions, or connectivity issues.”
Ziad Nasr, General Manager for Acronis Middle East, highlights the importance of infrastructure flexibility. “Acronis addresses this through cross-border and multi-cloud DR options. Our geo-redundant storage and support for public cloud destinations—including Microsoft Azure from July 2025—help businesses maintain access despite regional outages or restrictions.”
Security at the Core of Resilience
As geopolitical risks increase, so do threats of tampering, sabotage, and ransomware targeting backup systems. To counter this, DR platforms must be secure by design.
Cohesity implements immutable snapshots, role-based access controls, and AI-powered anomaly detection. Its DataLock and ransomware scanning features keep backups isolated and clean, even during targeted attacks.
“We’re ensuring that organizations can confidently restore operations from untampered backups,” says Molyneux.
Veeam takes a similar multi-layered security approach. “Our immutable backups can’t be altered or deleted—even if attackers gain admin access,” explains Afifi.
Veeam also enforces a zero-trust model, multi-factor authentication, and role-based access. Intelligent monitoring with Veeam ONE helps detect anomalies in real time, ensuring proactive responses.
Acronis adds real-time Active Protection that blocks ransomware as it happens and restores affected files automatically. “We use immutable storage in compliance mode, preventing even administrators from deleting or modifying backups during times of tension,” Nasr says.
Automation & Testing for Real-World Readiness
Disaster recovery isn’t just about storage—it’s about restoring operations under pressure. All three providers emphasize automated orchestration and regular testing to ensure reliability when every second counts.
Veeam’s orchestration tools automate failover and recovery steps, minimizing manual errors during crises.
“Automated recovery ensures our clients don’t scramble when their primary data centers are inaccessible,” says Afifi.
Cohesity’s SiteContinuity platform delivers end-to-end disaster recovery automation, enabling instant response in case of a regional event.
A Strategic Imperative for the Middle East
As Middle Eastern governments and enterprises accelerate digital transformation, the need for robust disaster recovery strategies is becoming non-negotiable. Regulators across the region are also emphasizing data sovereignty, driving demand for localized yet resilient DR solutions.
“Complying with regional laws while maintaining access to critical data is a delicate balance,” Molyneux notes. “That’s why flexible, compliant architectures are essential.”
Nasr adds that modern DR is no longer a technical back-office function but a strategic enabler of business continuity and compliance. “In today’s geopolitical climate, DR strategies must be both technically robust and regulator-ready.”
Conclusion: A Wake-Up Call for the Region
From the Red Sea to the Gulf, businesses face a complex mix of digital and physical threats. Without strong, secure, and geopolitically aware DR systems, they risk losing not just data—but trust, revenue, and operational stability.
The message from technology leaders is clear: disaster recovery is no longer optional. It’s an essential pillar of survival in a world where geopolitical disruptions are not “if” but “when.”