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In October/November 2007, Computerworld invited data protection decision-makers at large organizations to participate in a survey on the data protection issues at their organization. The survey was fielded through an invitation on Computerworld.com. The goal of the survey was to better understand the impact of organizations’ data protection decisions on business efficiency. The survey was commissioned by SEPATON, but data was gathered and tabulated independently by Computerworld Research. The following report represents top-line results of that survey and is meant to serve as a brief benchmarking tool for data protection decision-makers at large organizations seeking information about their peers’ data protection environments. Demographic profile of respondents
All 111 respondents, who were qualified through a series of screening questions, are involved in data protection decisions at organizations of 1,000 or more employees. Below is a breakdown of the respondents by involvement, company size, location, job title and industry.
This survey was conducted to better understand the impact of organizations’ data protection decisions on business efficiency. Several interesting conclusions emerge from the feedback provided by respondents. First is the fact that the reduction of enterprise risk is clearly a priority, with the top benefits derived from data protection products/solutions being a reduction in the risk of data loss/theft/corruption (68%), an improvement in disaster recovery capabilities (53%), the ability to meet regulatory compliance requirements (48%) and a reduction in legal/financial risk (46%). The issues of most importance to respondents are also related to enterprise risk, with compliance (78% critical/very important), data theft/loss/corruption (77%), legal risk/e-discovery support (72%), business continuity (71%), and data recoverability/meeting RTOs and RPOs (69%) topping the list.
Another issue exposed by this survey is the fact that organizations are facing a variety of technology and business challenges in implementing data protection products/solutions, including challenges related to the need for support at the top of the organization. In fact, more than half of the respondents (54%) reported lengthy/complex implementation as a key challenge. Other top challenges included concerns about increasing risk as a result of changing products/solutions (44%), concerns about longevity of today’s new technologies (41%), lack of funding (41%) and lack of executive support for data protection initiatives (38%). Lastly, there’s a disconnect between IT personnel and corporate executives on the importance of data protection; 77% of respondents feel it is critical or very important to IT personnel, compared with 59% of respondents rating this as critical or very important to corporate executives. Moreover, 49% of respondents are extremely or very confident in their organization’s ability to mitigate data protection risk. That means that there’s an opportunity for data protection decision-makers to learn more about the importance of data protection and its far-reaching effects on an organization’s business efficiency.
It is clear that a number of technologies are creating strain on organizations’ data protection environments, with e-mail creating the most strain. In fact, more than half of respondents (53%) report that e-mail is creating the most strain. Other factors creating strain include mobile devices/applications (37%), databases (35%), desktops (32%), business applications (29%) and remote offices (25%).
The top benefits derived from data protection products/solutions at respondent organizations are all related to the reduction of enterprise risk, with reducing the risk of data loss/theft/corruption topping the list, cited by 68% of the respondents. Other top benefits include improving disaster recovery capabilities (53%), meeting regulatory compliance requirements (48%), reducing legal/financial risk (46%) and mitigating growing data protection costs (45%).
Organizations’ are facing a mix of technology and business challenges in implementing data protection products/solutions, with more than half (54%) reporting lengthy/complex implementation as a key challenge. Other top challenges included increasing risk as a result of changing products/solutions (44%) and concerns about the longevity of today’s new technologies (41%). Challenges related to the need for support at the top of the organization were also reported by more than one-third of the respondents (lack of funding, 41%; lack of executive support for data protection initiatives, 38%).
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