Westborough, Massachusetts, 05 Oct 2012
ExaGrid Systems, the leader in cost-effective and scalable disk-based backup solutions with data deduplication, today announced the results of a 2012 survey of 1 200 IT managers, which shows widespread dissatisfaction with the capabilities of many existing backup systems to keep up with requirements for faster backups with permanently short backup windows as data grows, disaster recovery, virtual server backup and recovery, and backup system costs.
The dissatisfaction stems largely from delayed investments by many organisations in modernising backup systems in recent years, which leaves existing backup systems often unable to protect growing amounts of mission-critical data. The survey was conducted on ExaGrid's behalf by IDG Research Services.
Nearly 40% of IT managers report that their routine nightly backups exceed the backup window, with 30% saying their companies exceed the backup window by more than four hours. Many IT managers report that legacy backup systems are inadequate to meet business imperatives for low total cost of ownership (TCO), seamless scalability, ease of administration and management and WAN-efficient replication. The use of tape-based systems is expected to decline as IT departments move to modernise their backup infrastructures, with increased investments in disk-based systems, according to the survey.
According to a September 2011 research note, entitled: "The Future of Backup May Not Be Backup", published by Gartner analyst Dave Russell: "There are many challenges with backup solutions today. The top concerns are related to the cost, capability and complexity of currently deployed backup systems. Gartner hears daily from organisations that are seeking significant improvements in their backup practices, and we continue to hear that organisations feel that the backup process needs to be dramatically, not incrementally, improved."
Conducted in May 2012, the objective of the ExaGrid survey was to examine backup and recovery challenges among IT managers. To learn more about the survey insights, download the free white paper, titled: "Wanted: Better Backup", from the ExaGrid Web site.
The survey revealed several important trends and perceptions about existing backup systems:
Backup challenges mounting - Among the top nightly backup challenges cited by IT managers are the following:
* Fifty-four percent said their backup windows are taking too long.
* Fifty-one percent said they are facing growing business requirements for more reliable and efficient disaster recovery.
* Forty-eight percent said they face long restore and recovery times.
Widening expectations gap - there is a growing gap between what outdated backup systems can achieve and even greater requirements for faster backup and recovery that come with explosive data growth:
* While 75% of respondents said low TCO was extremely important or very important, only 45% said their systems delivered this effectively. In addition, 72% said avoiding costly "forklift upgrades" and product obsolescence was either extremely important or very important, but just 41% said their current systems were able to deliver this.
Protecting virtualised servers - existing backup solutions need improvement to meet goals for protecting virtualised servers:
* Just 44% of respondents said their current backup system either meets or exceeds their offsite disaster recovery goals for virtualised servers. In addition, only roughly half said their systems are meeting goals for protecting virtualised servers with regard to backup windows and restore/recovery times.
Data is vulnerable - IT managers have major concerns with the capabilities of their backup systems to keep their data secure:
* The vast majority of IT managers (97%) believe their data is somewhat or extremely vulnerable to data protection or security incidents, and most have experienced one or more of these incidents in the past year.
* Following a data protection incident, it takes an average of about seven hours to resume normal operations. IDC estimates that it costs businesses an average of $70 000 per hour of downtime, further highlighting the need for enhanced backup and recovery.
Disk investment increasing - IT managers are interested in disk-based backup solutions with deduplication in a grid architecture, citing the advantages of faster backups, reduced management burden, no expanding backup windows as data grows, avoidance of forklift upgrades and elimination of potential unexpected costs over time:
* Among respondents using tape only, 75% said they expect to be using a disk-based method within 12 months.
* Usage of disk-based data deduplication appliances is expected to increase by 48% among respondents using tape only.
Supporting quote:
* Bill Hobbib, vice-president of worldwide marketing at ExaGrid Systems: "What comes through loud and clear from these survey results is a sense that IT organisations can no longer delay the modernisation of their backup systems. IT organisations are under pressure like never before to deliver on business requirements for reduced backup and recovery times, more reliable disaster recovery and low total system costs. Moving to a disk-based backup system that can scale seamlessly to handle data growth rates of 30% or more is becoming a top IT priority."
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