Cyber Protection & NIS2 Compliance for Irish Businesses

NIS2 applies to medium and large businesses across 18 sectors including healthcare, food manufacturing, energy, transport, digital services, and supply chain providers. Over 4,000 Irish businesses are directly in scope, and many smaller ones are indirectly affected because their larger customers will require them to demonstrate cyber hygiene as part of supply chain risk management. Ireland’s transposition legislation is progressing and enforcement is expected in 2026.

Yes. DORA has been live since January 2025 and applies not only to banks and insurers, but to their ICT service providers — meaning any managed service provider, IT supplier, or software vendor serving a financial entity is directly in scope. There is no grace period. If you provide IT services to a bank, credit union, insurance broker, or payment processor, you are already required to comply. Our Advanced plan is designed with DORA’s ICT risk management and incident reporting requirements in mind.

Fines under NIS2 reach up to €10 million or 2% of global annual turnover for essential entities, and €7 million or 1.4% for important entities — whichever is higher (NIS2 Directive, Article 34). Beyond financial penalties, directors of non-compliant organisations may face personal liability and potential disqualification under the Companies Act 2014. This makes cybersecurity a boardroom issue, not just an IT issue.

ISO 27001 requires documented controls across data protection, business continuity, vulnerability management, and access control. Acronis covers all four areas natively. The compliance reporting included in our Advanced plan generates audit-ready evidence documentation — significantly reducing the workload of an ISO 27001 certification audit. Acronis itself holds ISO 27001, ISO 27017, and ISO 27018 certification, so you are building on an already-certified infrastructure.

Yes. Data loss can happen to any business through accidental deletion, hardware failure, ransomware, or human error. Without a backup, recovering lost data can take days or be impossible entirely. Under GDPR, Irish businesses are required to protect personal data and have the ability to restore it following a breach. Under NIS2, maintaining and testing backup and recovery is a specific technical obligation. A reliable backup solution is no longer optional — it is a regulatory requirement.

No. This is one of the most common misconceptions among Irish businesses. Microsoft 365 is designed for uptime and availability, not long-term backup or recovery. Microsoft does not guarantee recovery of deleted emails, files, or SharePoint data beyond a short retention window. If an employee accidentally deletes data, or a ransomware attack corrupts your Microsoft 365 environment, you may not be able to recover it through Microsoft alone. All our plans include Microsoft 365 cloud-to-cloud backup, giving you an independent recovery point you control.

EDR stands for Endpoint Detection and Response. It is an advanced security solution that continuously monitors your business devices for threats such as malware, ransomware, and suspicious behaviour, and responds in real time. Unlike traditional antivirus which only blocks known threats, EDR detects unusual behaviour and can stop an attack before it spreads. NIS2 requires businesses to have technical measures for threat detection and incident response — EDR is the practical tool that delivers this. It is included in our Standard and Advanced plans.

Backup is the process of copying and storing your data. Disaster recovery goes further — it is the process of restoring your entire business operations after a major incident such as a server failure, ransomware attack, or natural disaster. This includes failover to cloud infrastructure so your business can keep operating while physical hardware is replaced. NIS2 and DORA both require tested business continuity and disaster recovery plans. Our Standard and Advanced plans include disaster recovery with test failover, so you can verify your recovery capability without disrupting live operations.

Yes. Under GDPR, Irish businesses must implement appropriate technical measures to protect personal data, including the ability to restore it following a loss or breach. Acronis is ISO 27001, ISO 27017, and ISO 27018 certified and GDPR compliant. Using Acronis demonstrates to regulators that you have taken appropriate and documented steps to protect personal data. If you are working towards ISO 27001 certification, a robust backup and security solution is one of the first technical controls an auditor will check.

With Acronis, backups run automatically on a schedule you define — daily as a minimum, or more frequently for critical systems. Point-in-time restore gives you granular control over what version of your data is recovered. For compliance purposes, we can configure backup schedules, retention policies, and recovery point objectives (RPOs) to meet the specific requirements of NIS2, DORA, or ISO 27001 documentation. Contact us to discuss your requirements.

The Business Backup plan covers backup and GDPR obligations — it is the right starting point for businesses that need reliable cloud backup and Microsoft 365 protection. The Cyber Protect & EDR plan adds endpoint security, vulnerability management, RMM, and compliance logging, making it the recommended choice for businesses with NIS2 obligations. The Ultimate Protection plan is our full cyber resilience stack, adding XDR, immutable backup, geo-redundant storage, DLP, and automated compliance reporting — designed for DORA-regulated businesses and ISO 27001 certification. Get in touch and we will advise which plan suits your business.

Yes. VMotion is an authorised Acronis partner and one of the very few based in Ireland. This means you get Acronis’ world-class cyber protection delivered and supported locally by an Irish team that understands the needs of Irish businesses. We are based in Limerick and serve businesses across Ireland and the EU. As a local partner, we can assist with compliance documentation, risk assessments, and audit preparation — not just product provisioning.