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Implement backup reporting for improved data governance
Data visibility and governance are more important than ever in 2026. Reporting can help ensure that your organization understands what it has in its data backups.
Data is the lifeblood of the modern enterprise. As data proliferation continues, however, risks
also increase. Data governance is no longer optional, it's essential.
When developing a data governance plan, organizations often overlook the importance of data backup reporting. By providing visibility into backup operations, organizations can manage risks while also improving both compliance and data resilience.
What is backup reporting, and why does it matter?
Backup reporting is more than just confirming that backup jobs ran as scheduled. It's a tool for monitoring backup health. Backup reporting tools display health metrics such as backup failure rates, backup duration, and adherence to recovery objectives.
For organizations in regulated industries, backup reporting tools can clearly demonstrate compliance with various regulatory requirements. Even in the absence of regulatory requirements, backup reporting still brings value to organizations. Backup monitoring tools, though not a substitute for comprehensive testing, can help to prove that backups are viable before a disaster strikes. Similarly, such tools can help detect issues before they become problems, enabling admins to proactively address them.
Many backup reporting tools can also help organizations optimize backup costs by identifying inefficient use of backup resources. An organization might, for example, be able to move some backups to less expensive storage.
How backup reporting works and who is responsible for it
Most modern backup reporting tools use various APIs to pull information directly from backup applications. These tools might also use similar APIs to retrieve data from related components such as storage targets and hypervisors. The data ingested might include logs, raw metrics or a combination of the two.
Once the data is ingested, the tool normalizes and aggregates it to use the information to spot trends and anomalies. These trends and anomalies are usually displayed on a dashboard, but most tools can also send alerts by email or even communicate with broader monitoring tools that the organization is using for general IT infrastructure monitoring.
Generally, it is the backup admins who interact with backup reporting tools on a day-to-day basis, but these tools might also be used by others within the organization. IT managers, for example, are usually the ones who make decisions based on the data. Likewise, compliance teams use the reports to make sure that backups are performed in accordance with the organization's regulatory obligations.
Tips for better backup reporting
The most important backup reporting best practice is to make sure that the organization is taking the time to review logs and reports. This information does nothing to help the organization unless someone is actually looking at it.
Another best practice is to not stop at reporting the data. It's just as important to interpret the data and use it to determine what actions need to be taken. For example, the data might reveal that the organization needs to begin budgeting for additional backup storage.
Finally, automate the collection and reporting of data. Manual processes are prone to errors and omissions, whereas automated processes are better for meeting both compliance and operational requirements.
Brien Posey is a former 22-time Microsoft MVP and a commercial astronaut candidate. In his more than 30 years in IT, he has served as a lead network engineer for the U.S. Department of Defense and a network administrator for some of the largest insurance companies in America.
