Technical Support Most Important Factor in Selecting Online Backup

BUMI Backup My Info! Inc., provider of managed online backup and recovery solutions for SMBs, announced the findings of its first IT Consultant survey, which analyzed how IT consultants perceive online data backup and recovery.

According to the respondents, which included IT consultants, VARs, systems integrators and other channel professionals, technical service and support (91%) is the most important factor when selecting data backup and recovery vendors. Pricing (73%), data security (62%), and industry reputation (51%) were also determined to be key criteria.

"Customer service is paramount, and the findings of the survey reaffirm that," said Jennifer Walzer, CEO of BUMI, an online data backup company that generates a significant portion of its business through its IT consultant program. "Data is growing too quickly and technology is changing too fast to automate the backup and recovery process. When you have a data failure, you don’t want to be filling out online forms or talking to someone who is reading from a script. You want a senior-level engineer who knows your data environment and business needs to walk you through the process."

Survey Highlights:

• Not all IT consultants test data restore process on consistent basis. Only four percent of respondents tested the restore process of a client’s backup operation on a daily basis. The same percentage tested on a weekly basis. The remaining tested monthly (56%), yearly (25%) or never (11%).
• Importance of monitoring status of backup processes on daily basis. Only 47 percent check the status of clients’ backup processes on a daily basis. Other IT consultants check on backup processes on a weekly (20%) and monthly (25%) basis while some do not monitor backup processes at all (7%).
• Online backup is most reliable. The survey found that 60 percent of IT consultant respondents believe online providers offer the most reliable data backup and recovery solutions. Internal appliances (25%), replication methods (11%) and storage tape (4%) all scored poorly in comparison.
• Confidence in restoring client data flawlessly. Sixty-seven percent of respondents are confident that their clients’ data will be restored flawlessly within hours.

"The findings also showed that backups and recovery processes were not always being tested as regularly as they should have been," added Ms. Walzer. "Routine testing is what enables organizations to defend against unforeseen events by catching glitches and other problems in the restore process before it becomes a real problem."

The survey was conducted from June to August 2011 and is based on responses from 55 IT consultants – some of whom are part of BUMI’s IT consultant program.

Snapshot of the survey results