Cyberstorage: The Next Frontier in Ransomware Defense

In today’s digital landscape, where data is the lifeblood of every organization, the threat of ransomware continues to loom large. From healthcare systems to municipalities and global enterprises, no sector is immune. As cybercriminals grow more sophisticated—leveraging AI, deepfakes, and advanced phishing tactics—traditional defenses are no longer sufficient. Enter cyberstorage: a transformative technology poised to redefine how organizations protect their most valuable digital assets.

What Is Cyberstorage?

Cyberstorage is an emerging class of data protection technology designed to actively defend storage systems against cyberattacks—particularly ransomware. Unlike traditional backup and recovery solutions that operate reactively, cyberstorage works in real time, sitting inline or parallel to file shares and unstructured data repositories. Its mission is clear: detect, block, and recover from attacks before they cause significant damage.  Cyberstorage is not just another layer of defense—it’s a proactive shield at the data level that leverages artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and forensic analytics to identify suspicious behavior such as mass deletions or encryption attempts and thwart them at the onset of the attack – not after the fact. When threats are detected by cyberstorage platforms, nefarious user access can be immediately revoked, and recovery can begin—often with a simple right-click restore.

Why Cyberstorage Matters Now

The urgency for cyberstorage is underscored by recent high-profile ransomware attacks. In just the past few months, organizations of all sizes and across multiple industry verticals continue to suffer significant disruptions due to ransomware attacks. According to Sophos, 59% of companies experienced at least one ransomware incident last year, and 68% had to restore from backups. Alarmingly, 56% of those whose data was encrypted ended up paying the ransom.

Despite these numbers, fewer than 20% of organizations currently use cyberstorage as a preventative mechanism for cyber resiliency. Yet Gartner predicts that by 2029, 100% of storage products will include cyberstorage capabilities. This gap between current adoption and future ubiquity presents a massive opportunity for IT leaders to get ahead of the curve.

How Cyberstorage Works

At its core, cyberstorage integrates directly with storage infrastructure—either through native OEM capabilities and API’s or third-party software integration. It continuously monitors data access patterns, looking for anomalies that suggest malicious activity. When a threat is detected, it can:

• Block user access to compromised file shares to limit the “blast radius”
• Trigger alerts and forensic logging
• Initiate rapid recovery of affected files

Unlike traditional disaster recovery and data protection solutions, which may replicate corrupted data across environments, cyberstorage works in real-time to stop an attack before it spreads corrupt data to another environment. This is especially critical in environments where data is replicated between production and disaster recovery sites.

The Vendor Landscape

Currently, NetApp is one of the few storage OEM’s offering native cyberstorage capabilities through its AI-enable Autonomous Ransomware Protection (ARP/AI) integrated with ONTAP and the BlueXP cyber recovery platform.  Dell Storage leverages Superna and ProLion CryptoSpike for cyberstorage protection on its PowerStore and PowerScale storage platforms.  Other OEM’s like Pure Storage, HPE, and Hitachi offer features like immutability and cyber recovery options, but don’t have native cyberstorage options for real-time ransomware detection and recovery at this time – although they will most likely add these features in the future.

This has opened the door for third-party vendors to fill the gap. Among the most notable:

• BullWall: A versatile platform that can provide cyberstorage functionality to any type of file share, including Azure Files. It also includes database honeypot capabilities to lure attackers into decoy environments to send up alerts before actual, production data is compromised.
• ShardSecure and Myota: These two up-and-coming vendors use advanced protection techniques like data sharding and data obfuscation (spreading data over multiple volumes) in addition to data encryption to make data immune to ransomware or post-quantum encryption attacks.

Implementation and Performance

One of the key advantages of most modern cyberstorage solutions is ease of deployment. Most do not require data migration and can be enabled as a service with minimal performance impact. Unlike older systems that slowed down operations when encryption or monitoring was enabled, today’s platforms are designed to be lightweight and accurate, with few false positives.

This makes cyberstorage an attractive option for organizations looking to enhance their security posture without overhauling their infrastructure.

Looking Ahead

As we head into the next wave of industry conferences—like Pure Accelerate, HPE Discover, and the Gartner Symposium, we expect to see more announcements around cyberstorage. Vendors are racing to integrate AI-driven protection into their platforms, and the market is poised for rapid growth.

For IT leaders, the message is clear: cyberstorage is no longer a “nice to have.” It’s a critical component of modern data protection. By adopting it now, organizations can stay ahead of threats, reduce recovery times, and safeguard their most valuable assets.

Final Thoughts

Cyberstorage represents a paradigm shift in how we think about data security and adds another layer of defense in an organization’s overall ransomware prevention posture. It’s not just about recovering from attacks—it’s about preventing them in the first place. With ransomware threats evolving daily, the time to act is now.

Whether you’re a storage architect, a cybersecurity professional, or a business leader, cyberstorage deserves a place in your strategic roadmap. As Mark McCully with Sayers put it, “Cyberstorage is a way of protecting high-value data in real time—cutting off the attack before it causes any significant damage.” That’s a future worth investing in.  If you would like to learn more about cyberstorage solutions and how they can benefit your organization, Sayers is here to help.  Our Infrastructure & Operations team has helped dozens of companies improve their Cyber Resilience posture, and we can help your business too.