The State of Backup and Recovery in Manufacturing: Key Findings from the 2026 Benchmark

Introduction

A 2026 benchmark study surveying 100 verified IT and OT decision-makers from mid-sized to enterprise manufacturing organizations (2,500+ employees) across North America and the United Kingdom has produced findings that should concern every operations and security leader in the sector.

The research paints a clear picture: manufacturing organizations are investing in backup solutions, but the majority cannot prove those solutions will work when they are needed most. The gap between deploying backup tools and achieving validated recovery capability is wider than most organizations realize, and the financial consequences of that gap are severe.

This article breaks down the key findings across five areas: the current state of backup environments, risks and recovery performance, organizational dynamics, investment priorities, and the path forward.

Current State: Tool Fragmentation and Hybrid Complexity

Most Manufacturers Run Multiple Backup Solutions Simultaneously

Manufacturing backup environments are defined by fragmentation. The vast majority of organizations deploy multiple solutions at once, layering different platforms to address distinct requirements across IT and OT systems.

This fragmentation reflects the inherent complexity of manufacturing, where diverse system types spanning ERP, SCADA, PLCs, cloud workloads, and endpoint devices resist unified approaches. However, it also creates management overhead, increases the risk of gaps in coverage, and complicates recovery coordination during actual incidents.

Hybrid Strategies Dominate, But OT Remains Under-Protected

Three-quarters (75%) of manufacturers employ hybrid backup strategies combining cloud and on-premise solutions. Cloud-only approaches account for 23%, while purely on-premise solutions represent just 2%.

The data on which systems are actually backed up reveals a concerning priority gap:

OT and ICS/SCADA systems rank last in protection priorities despite being the systems that directly control physical production processes. Nearly half of manufacturing organizations do not include their operational technology in formal backup management. Given that these systems control the processes generating revenue, this gap represents a significant and under-addressed risk.

Confidence Gaps Persist Despite Investment

A third of manufacturers lack confidence in meeting recovery targets and in their overall backup capabilities:

UK-based organizations show even lower confidence, with 46% expressing low confidence in backup and recovery capabilities compared to 27% in North America.

This disconnect between deployment and confidence suggests that having backup solutions in place is not the same as having validated, operational readiness.

Measurement Without Validation: The Blind Spot

Organizations Track What is Easy, Not What Matters

Manufacturers focus heavily on time-based recovery metrics, but the data reveals a dangerous imbalance between monitoring and actual validation:

Only 25% of organizations track how often they actually test their recovery processes. Organizations are measuring backup completion rates and theoretical recovery times without validating whether systems can actually be recovered when needed. This blind spot may only become apparent during a real production outage, when the cost of discovering it is highest.

Testing Frequency Lags Behind Monitoring

The gap between how often organizations review metrics and how often they validate actual recovery capability is stark:

Two-thirds review performance dashboards monthly or quarterly, but only half test backups with similar frequency. Full disaster recovery exercises happen just once or twice a year for the majority of organizations. Backup completion is tracked continuously while recovery capability remains unproven.

Risks, Resilience, and Recovery Performance

Internal Operations Drive Most Downtime

Three-quarters (74%) of manufacturers experience unplanned downtime at least annually, with many experiencing it quarterly or monthly. The leading causes are not external attacks but internal operational issues:

Cyberattacks account for only 5% of downtime causes. The overwhelming majority of outages stem from failed maintenance, misconfigurations, and infrastructure failures. This finding challenges the common assumption that backup and recovery investment should be driven primarily by cyber threats.

The Financial Stakes Are Severe

Downtime costs vary by region, but the numbers are significant across both markets:

Nearly half of North American manufacturers and a third of UK manufacturers estimate downtime costs of $100,000 or more per hour. At these rates, every hour of extended recovery time translates directly to six-figure losses.

Recovery Times Consistently Exceed Targets

Despite the severe financial consequences, recovery performance remains inadequate:

Three-quarters of organizations require over two hours to restore operations. Recovery times are notably longer in North America, where 39% take over four hours compared to 12% in the UK.

When tested against stated recovery objectives, the results are even more concerning:

Only 18% of manufacturers meet their own stated recovery targets. Nearly a third either fall significantly short or have never tested at all.

Ransomware Remains a Persistent Threat

Over half (55%) of manufacturing organizations experienced a ransomware incident in the past year:

While most incidents were contained, 8% of organizations experienced significant operational downtime. Defenses are improving but remain imperfect, and the 55% incident rate underscores that manufacturing remains a high-value target.

Organizational Dynamics and Challenges

IT/OT Coordination Remains Immature

OT backup ownership is split between IT teams (45%) and joint IT/OT teams (43%), with only 7% managed by OT teams directly. However, the level of integration between these teams tells a different story:

Only a third of organizations achieve full integration. The majority operate in partial coordination, creating risk where IT teams managing OT backups may lack the deep operational knowledge required for effective OT recovery. North American organizations show higher integration rates (91% partial or full) compared to the UK (69%).

Cultural Silos Are the Dominant Collaboration Challenge

When asked about the biggest challenges in IT/OT collaboration for backup and recovery, respondents identified:

The top challenge is not technical but cultural. Teams working in silos with different priorities, different risk tolerances, and different definitions of success create friction that technology alone cannot solve.

Legacy Systems Are the Primary Barrier to Progress

The key challenges manufacturers face in enhancing backup and recovery capabilities are structural rather than resource-driven:

Legacy systems and technical debt are the dominant barrier at 62%. Organizations are constrained by decades-old infrastructure that resists modernization. Multi-site complexity and budget limitations round out the top three. Notably, skilled staff shortages and tool fragmentation rank lower, suggesting the problem is foundational infrastructure rather than resources or technology choices.

Investment Priorities and Future Direction

The Majority Are Increasing Spending

72% of manufacturers plan to increase backup and recovery spending, with an average projected increase of 12%. Only 1% plan to decrease spending.

Investment priorities reflect the triple challenge of evolving threats, operational efficiency demands, and aging infrastructure:

Ransomware protection dominates at 51%, but automation (42%) and legacy modernization (39%) follow closely. Improving recovery speed ranks fourth at 29%, suggesting organizations recognize the gap but may be under-investing in the area that most directly impacts downtime cost.

What Manufacturers Prioritize When Evaluating Solutions

When evaluating or renewing backup and recovery solutions, manufacturers prioritize practical business outcomes:

Cost efficiency leads, but IT/OT integration capability and ransomware resilience rank in the top three, underscoring the dual demand for solutions that work across the full manufacturing technology stack and defend against the dominant threat vector.

Digital Transformation Awareness Exceeds Execution

While 51% of organizations acknowledge Industry 4.0 as an important focus, only 22% have elevated it to a top strategic priority with active investment. Another 20% have it on the radar for future planning, and 6% are discussing it without concrete plans.

This execution gap matters for backup and recovery because as environments become more connected through IoT, cloud services, and digital twins, the surface area requiring protection expands. Organizations that are slow to invest in Industry 4.0 protection today may face compounding coverage gaps as their environments grow more complex.

Compliance Adds Regional Complexity

Manufacturers must navigate multiple compliance frameworks that directly shape backup and recovery requirements, with notable regional divergence:

ISO 27001 provides baseline coverage in both markets, but secondary frameworks diverge significantly. NIST and SOX are prominent in North America, while the UK leans on GDPR and the Cyber Assessment Framework (CAF). Organizations operating across both regions must reconcile these different requirements into a coherent backup and recovery strategy.

Third-Party Dependencies and Vendor Proximity

Nearly nine in ten manufacturers express concern about third-party dependencies during downtime events:

UK organizations express significantly higher major concern (62%) compared to North America (32%). Over four in five manufacturers also consider vendor regional location important to their resilience strategy, factoring in data sovereignty, local support availability, and proximity during critical recovery scenarios.

Key Takeaways for Manufacturing Security and Operations Leaders

The benchmark data points to five critical imperatives:

1. Shift from Backup Metrics to Recovery Validation

Tracking RTO and backup completion rates creates a false sense of security when only 18% of organizations actually meet their recovery targets during testing. Regular, comprehensive recovery validation must replace infrequent tabletop exercises.

2. Elevate OT Protection Priority

With only 54% of organizations including OT/ICS/SCADA systems in formal backup management, nearly half of the systems that directly generate revenue and control physical safety are operating without validated recovery capability.

3. Address Internal Operational Quality

Cyberattacks cause only 5% of downtime. The remaining 95% comes from failed maintenance, misconfigurations, and infrastructure failures. Investment in operational quality, change management, and configuration protection will yield more downtime reduction than additional cyber defenses alone.

4. Bridge the IT/OT Cultural Divide

The 45% of organizations citing cultural and organizational silos as their top collaboration challenge cannot solve this with technology. Joint governance models, shared recovery exercises, and aligned priorities between IT and OT teams are prerequisites for effective cross-domain backup and recovery.

5. Close the Investment-to-Capability Gap

With 72% planning budget increases but only 26% investing in testing and validation improvement, organizations risk spending more on solutions without gaining confidence in their actual recovery capability. Every dollar invested in backup infrastructure should have a corresponding investment in proving it works.

Beacon Security helps manufacturing organizations build operational resilience across their IT and OT environments. If your backup and recovery strategy needs validation or your OT systems lack adequate protection, contact us to discuss your specific requirements.