Data security doubts continue to inhibit cloud storage adoption
Fri 11 Jul 2014
Complexity and data growth are the key data protection challenges for small- and medium-sized businesses according to new research from analyst firm, IDC.
In the survey of IT managers in small businesses across the world, sponsored by Acronis, a huge gap in the use of cloud back up storage between users in the US at 93% and Europe at 65% and Asia Pacific at 57% was revealed. Data security was cited as the main reason by those not doing so but this was by only one in three from the US compared 59% in Western Europe.
Very few organisations trust to cloud storage alone. According to the research 87% of organisations also retain on-premises copies of their data.
The survey also describes a very complex world with nearly 37% of organisations having to simultaneously back up virtual, physical and cloud-based servers.
“Data back-up for a small or medium-sized business is more complex than ever,” said Eric Burgener, research director, storage at IDC. “Data sizes and types continue to evolve, as does the number of servers and operating systems each company uses. This leads to a host of new challenges IT managers face to make sure they can back up and protect their data and restore operations quickly.”
The risks involved in losing data were also highlighted with nearly 80% of companies estimating that downtime costs them at least $20,000 per hour with 20% estimating that damage to be at least $100,000ph.
