53% Secure Data on Local Server Storage, 51% on NAS, 39% on Tape, 30% on Cloud

Backup and DR software developer Paragon Software Group (PSG) conducted a survey among 377 IT professionals from August 29 – September 7, 2012.

The results show that of those surveyed, utilizing local server storage was the most popular method (52.6%) for securing critical data in the IT environment, followed closely by NAS (51.2%); with only about a 30% adoption rate of cloud services. Tape still maintains a footprint with a use of 38.8%. (Note: In some cases, multiple storage methods are employed within the same IT environment thus resulting in a totaling of storage methods greater than 100%.)

Paragon’s numbers regarding the use of cloud services align with InformationWeek‘s annual cloud survey (Dell, HP Create Clouds for the ‘Rest of Us’, April 23, 2012, by Art Wittmann), which indicates that the adoption rate of Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), a key element of cloud storage, may have reached its peak and is now trending to slower growth.

Further, the survey results show that, of those surveyed, cloud services were not implemented in several industries including healthcare and aerospace/aeronautics. Also of note, the finance industry’s unique mix of very short system-recovery and long data-retention requirements makes it the market segment with the highest integration of cloud services (36.8%) in the storage environment. Finance is also the highest integrator of tape into the storage mix, 68.4% of those surveyed. The logistics (66.7%) and government (56.0%) industries were the second and third highest users of tape backup by industry.

Percentage of Local Server, Cloud, and Tape
  Use in Storage Environment by Industry: