IBM has published the draft edition of IBM Storage Protect for Cloud: Safeguarding Critical SaaS Environments, an in-depth technical guide designed to help organizations protect mission-critical cloud workloads from data loss, ransomware, and compliance risks.
This IBM Redpaper draws on the expertise of IBM product leaders and engineers to provide not only a feature tour of IBM Storage Protect for Cloud (SP4C), but also the context, best practices, and deployment scenarios needed to make the most of it.
Why This Redpaper Matters
SaaS adoption is at an all-time high—and so are threats against it. Applications like Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, Salesforce, Azure, and Google Workspace have become business lifelines, yet many organizations still misunderstand the shared responsibility model, assuming their cloud provider handles backup and retention. This miscalculation often isn’t discovered until data is accidentally deleted, corrupted, or encrypted by ransomware.
The 2025 Cost of a Data Breach Report cited in the paper pegs the average breach at $4.44M, with malicious insider attacks and supply chain compromises costing even more. The takeaway? Cloud workloads need enterprise-grade backup and recovery—beyond what’s built-in.
Inside IBM Storage Protect for Cloud
The Redpaper details how SP4C delivers full and incremental backups, granular restoration, encryption at rest and in transit, role-based access controls, and early ransomware detection—all in a fully managed SaaS model with no infrastructure to deploy or patch.
Key coverage includes:
- Azure – Protect VMs, Entra ID, Blob/File/Object Storage, SQL databases, DevOps repositories, with up to four backups daily, granular object restores, and “calendar view” recovery.
- Microsoft 365 – Exchange, SharePoint, OneDrive, Teams, Power Platform, with smart assist restores to ensure clean recovery after ransomware.
- Dynamics 365 – CRM/ERP backups down to the field level, with compare-and-restore options.
- Salesforce – Metadata, records, and attachments with sandbox seeding capabilities.
- Google Workspace – Gmail, Drive (including Shared Drives), Calendar, Contacts, Vault, with flexible item-level and calendar-based recovery.
Security & Compliance
SP4C supports BYOK (bring your own encryption key), MFA, anomaly detection, and integration with SIEM platforms like IBM QRadar and Splunk for centralized event monitoring.
Partner & MSP Enablement
The Partners chapter outlines how Managed Service Providers can use SP4C’s multi-tenant Partner Portal, role-based access, automated reporting, storage profiles, and API integration to deliver branded, scalable backup services.
SIEM Integration for Proactive Threat Response
Chapter 3 highlights integrations with QRadar and Splunk, complete with links to IBM support pages and downloadable audit event definitions. This allows security teams to fold SP4C events into existing monitoring rulesets, speeding detection and response.
Who Should Read This Redpaper
- IT Leaders & Architects seeking to implement resilient SaaS backup strategies
- Security Operations Teams wanting to integrate backup intelligence into SIEM workflows
- Compliance Officers needing proof of data protection policies for audits
- Managed Service Providers building value-added backup offerings
The Redpaper is currently available and can be downloaded free from IBM Redbooks:
If your organization runs on Microsoft 365, Azure, Dynamics 365, Salesforce, or Google Workspace, this Redpaper provides both the “why” and the “how” of protecting it. With detailed workload coverage, feature guidance, and security integrations, it’s an essential resource for anyone tasked with safeguarding business-critical SaaS data.