WannaCry and Amazon S3 buckets put greater focus on data protection security in 2017. Converged appliances, a Veeam CEO shift and private equity deals also made news.

Backup and data security became intertwined in 2017.

WannaCry ransomware and Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) bucket leaks highlighted data protection news, forcing users and vendors to find new ways to protect data. Other data protection news showed shifts in technology and corporate strategy, such as two old-school backup vendors rolling out converged appliances, a billion-dollar-plus private equity transaction and a maturing vendor’s decision to split its CEO job in two.