$400 Million Being Lost in US Annually Due to Poor Protection Practices

A survey commissioned by EVault Inc., a Seagate company, reveals that more than twenty percent of IT organizations that manage between 2-7 TB of data suffered a data loss in the past year – in fact, more than half of this group suffered 2-3 data losses-each with an estimated average cost of 2-5% of total company revenues. Survey participants from the US Northeast put this figure as high as 10%.

"As we peeled away the layers on this research, a troubling picture emerged: The level of data loss is huge, and only a few organizations are employing data protection best practices," said Terry Cunningham, president and GM of EVault. "When largely preventable data loss conservatively costs businesses hundreds of millions of dollars annually, it is time to rethink your priorities. Our survey reinforces that protecting digital assets can bring far-reaching benefits well beyond that of securing a competitive advantage – it can also prevent significant economic loss."

According to the EVault study, the key drivers for adopting data protection were company best practices combined with competitive differentiation – for the first time edging out the long-time favorite, regulatory compliance.

Cloud-Based Disaster Recovery
SMB Opportunity for 2012
Widespread lack of data protection readiness is highlighted in a related report from an independent Forrester Research, Inc. report, State Of Enterprise Disaster Recovery Preparedness, Q2 2011, published May 18, 2011. According to Forrester, "Companies are not only consolidating their backup sites, they’re also decreasing the distance between them. This is a red flag for companies whose DR sites are close enough that they could be affected by the same disaster."

"We’ve seen the benefits that remote, Cloud-connected storage and disaster recovery services provide to an organization, and moving data to the cloud is a very practical and cost-effective way to manage and secure those IT assets," said Cunningham. "There are still huge opportunities for companies to improve their overall disaster recovery strategies by incorporating off-premise solutions and integrating mobile devices into the equation. We believe we will see greater adoption in both areas in 2012."

The  survey demonstrates that remote disaster recovery must become more of a strategic corporate imperative. While 95% of US IT decision makers said they have some type of disaster recovery plan in place, only 44% have remote, cloud-based disaster recovery capabilities. Among the organizations that don’t have remote cloud service, three-quarters are considering making cloud-based disaster recovery a reality in 2012.

Organizations with over 1,000 employees are more likely than smaller businesses to have a remote disaster recovery plan in place. US companies outperformed their international peers in similar occurrences.

The Threat to Mobile Data:
So Many Users, So Few Protections
The difficulty of protecting company data residing on mobile devices stood out as one of the more serious threats from the survey. Although 95% of US organizations said company information resides on employees’ mobile devices (laptop computers, tablets and smart phones), 40% of these have no plan to deal with this potential vulnerability.

Expertise and Awareness: Key to Channel Growth?
The survey reveals that more than half of US respondents, 54%, utilize at least one service provider to support data recovery, while 21% opt not to. Good news for the reseller channel: 25% of survey respondents said they would like to use local providers but are unaware of any with the relevant expertise. If they could find providers with the right expertise, 42% would consider outsourcing their backup and recovery needs.

IT Decision Makers Dread Giving Bosses Bad News
On a lighter note, almost half, 48%, of all respondents noted that they would rather perform a solo of Lady Gaga’s Poker Face at their company holiday party than inform the company’s senior leadership that vital company data has been lost and is unrecoverable. Furthermore, 17% of those surveyed would rather have their teeth pulled without using painkillers than inform their bosses of the loss of critical data.

Survey Methodology
EVault commissioned Vanson Bourne, a research company, to conduct this study of trends in data storage and related services. Between November and December of 2011, Vanson Bourne interviewed 250 IT decision makers in the financial service and retail industries across the two regions of the UK (North West and South East England, including London), Paris Ile de France and three regions of the United States (Northeast, Texas, and California).