...42% of organisations say that cloud computing will become integral to their data protection plans over the next year.
CA Technologies commissioned independent research in May 2011 to investigate the data protection and disaster recovery (DR) policies of organisations in Asia Pacific. This report highlights the key findings and provides insights into how these policies can be improved.
CLOUD RESOURCES BECOME INTEGRAL TO DATA PROTECTION STRATEGIES
The use of cloud computing amongst businesses has been increasing rapidly in recent months. At the same time, the amount of data that companies have to manage continues to explode and companies are under renewed pressure to keep it safe. The results from this survey show that investment in business continuity continues to rise, and much of this spending is directed towards solutions that use cloud computing resources.
Organisations are beginning to appreciate that cloud resources offer a solution to some of their data protection requirements. CA Technologies expects this trend to continue but highlights the need for businesses to opt for solutions that allow them to evolve their data protection strategy at their own pace – whether it be a new on-premise technology, using cloud as backup medium or moving to a more complex hybrid cloud model.
DISASTER RECOVERY INCIDENTS
Incidents leading to data loss are extremely prevalent - 95% of all organisations surveyed had experienced data or application loss over the last year. The causes of the losses were varied, but across every country, IT systems failure (such as hardware or network failure) emerged as the number one trigger. Companies need to be able to predict the likelihood of different types of incidents happening and design an infrastructure that minimizes both their frequency and their impact.
DISASTER RECOVERY PLANNING
The majority of companies admit their data is inadequately protected - only a quarter are confident enough to say they have a full and comprehensive disaster recovery plan. This in part explains the consistently high levels of data loss incidence. More encouragingly, the majority of companies test their DR plans frequently, but many fail to meet their DR objectives when they do so. Their poor data protection strategies are primarily attributed to a lack of both budget and senior management support.
A previous CA Technologies survey, the Avoidable Cost of Downtime, found that companies are losing in the region of $350,000 a year through IT outages. Senior management need to consider this cost, against the much smaller investment required to keep data and applications adequately protected on an ongoing basis.
CA Technologies and its partners work with companies to help them plan and roll-out the policies and IT systems they need for effective data protection – across physical, virtual and cloud environments.
*The survey was conducted by an independent research firm, Coleman Parkes. All interviews were undertaken during May 2011.