Most webinar Q&A sessions run out of time before the best questions show up. Ours didn’t. We recently hosted a session on compliance-ready backups, and the questions went far beyond the basics covering practical deployments, regional compliance requirements, and the trade-offs IT teams are actively weighing today. We are answering them here, in full, for anyone who could not make it live.
Catch the full session below, or skip straight to the answers.
What about SAMA and NCA compliance in Saudi Arabia?
The Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) governs regulated financial institutions and has established cybersecurity requirements that include strict controls around protecting sensitive information. Depending on the nature of the data and applicable regulations, organizations may need to maintain data including backup and disaster recovery copies within Saudi Arabia or obtain the necessary approvals before transferring it outside the Kingdom.
The National Cybersecurity Authority (NCA) establishes broader cybersecurity requirements through its Essential Cybersecurity Controls (ECC), which apply primarily to government entities, operators of critical national infrastructure, and other organizations designated by the NCA. The NCA’s Cloud Cybersecurity Controls also include requirements related to protecting cloud-hosted data, including backup and data residency considerations.
The practical takeaway is this: if your organization is subject to Saudi regulatory requirements, choose a backup solution that supports your data residency strategy and enables you to retain control over where backup data is stored. BDRShield helps organizations support these requirements by allowing backups to be stored on customer-managed storage or supported cloud storage in the jurisdiction of their choice, where available. As with any regulatory requirement, organizations should validate their deployment against the specific obligations that apply to them.
For a small Indian startup handling student data and corporate client data, which framework should we prioritize first, DPDP, SOC 2, or ISO 27001?
If you’re processing personal data in India, your first priority should be meeting your obligations under the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act and the applicable Rules, since these are legal requirements.
SOC 2 and ISO/IEC 27001 are voluntary assurance frameworks that organizations commonly pursue to satisfy customer expectations, contractual obligations, or international security best practices.
The good news is these aren’t competing priorities. Many of the foundational security controls such as encryption, access controls, incident response, audit logging, and governance—support both DPDP compliance efforts and certifications like SOC 2 and ISO/IEC 27001.
Since you’re handling student personal data, it’s important to apply appropriate safeguards based on the nature, volume, and potential impact of the data you process. If a customer specifically requires SOC 2 or ISO/IEC 27001 certification, that business requirement may determine which certification you pursue next after establishing your DPDP compliance program.
How does BDRShield handle data residency, can we ensure backups stay within India for DPDP compliance?
BDRShield is designed to give organizations flexibility in deciding where their backup data is stored. You can backup data to your own storage infrastructure whether that’s on-premises, at a branch office, or in a private cloud giving you control over the physical location of your backups.
If you choose BDRShield Cloud, you can select from the available storage locations during deployment. This flexibility helps organizations align their backup strategy with applicable data residency and regulatory requirements. Ultimately, each organization is responsible for configuring its deployment to meet the legal and regulatory obligations applicable to its environment.
What are the specific backup requirements under DPDP Act 2023? Does it mandate encrypted backups with specific retention periods?
The DPDP Act does not prescribe a specific encryption algorithm or mandate a fixed backup retention period. DPDP Rule 6 names backup and recovery mechanisms explicitly as part of the “reasonable security safeguards” every Data Fiduciary must maintain, alongside encryption, access controls, and continuous monitoring. Separately, logs and processing records must be retained for a minimum of one year to support breach investigation, this is a firm, specific number, unlike the backup retention period itself, which is left to what is “reasonable” for your data’s sensitivity and volume.
In practice, this means organizations are expected to implement reliable backup and recovery capabilities, use appropriate security controls such as encryption, and define a documented backup retention policy that aligns with their business, legal, and regulatory obligations. While the DPDP framework does not prescribe a universal backup retention period, organizations should be able to justify the retention period they adopt based on their operational and compliance requirements.
What’s the cost range for a compliance-ready backup solution for a 10-person company?
This depends on several factors, including the number of workloads you’re protecting, the amount of data being backed up, your recovery objectives, storage choices, and compliance requirements. The honest answer is to get a specific quote based on your actual setup rather than anchor on a generic figure that may not reflect your situation at all. You can request a quote for your environment here for setting up compliance-ready backups with BDRShield.
What’s the minimum viable backup setup to pass a SOC 2 Type I audit for a company of 20 people?
SOC 2 Type I evaluates whether your security controls are appropriately designed at a specific point in time. It does not assess how consistently those controls have operated over an extended period—that’s the focus of a SOC 2 Type II audit.
For many small organizations, a practical minimum includes:
- A documented backup and recovery policy
- Clearly defined Recovery Point Objectives (RPOs) and Recovery Time Objectives (RTOs)
- Encryption for backup data in transit and at rest
- Access controls limiting who can administer, access, or restore backup data.
- A documented restore procedure.
- Evidence that restore testing has been performed.
You don’t necessarily need enterprise-scale infrastructure to prepare for a Type I audit. What matters is demonstrating that appropriate controls exist, are documented, and are designed to address your organization’s risks. The auditor will ultimately assess whether those controls are suitable for your environment.
For a company using AI agents to process data, what additional backup and compliance considerations apply?
Organizations using AI systems should think beyond backing up application data alone.
Where appropriate, consider preserving the information needed to understand how important decisions were made. This may include input data, prompts, configuration settings, model versions, workflows, and supporting logs, where retaining them is consistent with your legal obligations and internal policies. Maintaining version history for AI configurations and supporting datasets can also help with investigations, audits, and recovery after an incident.
If your organization processes large volumes of personal data or performs profiling or automated decision-making, monitor developments under the DPDP framework. Organizations designated as Significant Data Fiduciaries may be subject to additional compliance obligations, depending on the criteria notified by the Government.
Want this walked through for your own setup?
Every business’s compliance-ready backup setup looks a little different depending on your data, your industry, and your regulatory footprint. If you want to walk through what this looks like specifically for your business, book a personalised demo with BDRShield experts.
Have a question we didn’t cover? Drop it in the comments – we will answer it there.
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