Data Protection is becoming more and more significant as the amount of data created continues to grow at an unpredictable rate. Nowadays, businesses cannot afford a single minute of downtime as it greatly impacts productivity and profitability.
We had recently conducted a survey on data protection among the IT admin communities across the globe and received numerous valuable responses. The survey comprised of the following questions,
- What are the major reasons for data loss in your organizations?
- Have you implemented a Backup solution in your environment?
- Where would you like to store the backup data?
- Are you happy with your current backup solution?
- Where do you face complexities with your current solution?
The result of this survey gave us some interesting insights into the state of backup. Let’s take a look at what this survey can tell us about data protection.
Findings on the reasons for data loss
Over 83% of the respondents said Malware attack is the reason for data loss. This is followed by Hardware Failure & Software Corruption which was acknowledged by 76% of the respondents. Human Error was considered to be the reason for data loss by 68% of the respondents, while only 15% mentioned Natural Disaster as a reason for data loss, the least of all.
We also got more than one response to this question from some participants. Of which, 34% of the participants chose Malware attack & Hardware failure/software corruption together, 27% responded to hardware failure/software corruption & human errors and 22% responded to Malware attack & Human errors.
And, around 15% chose all the 3 major reasons.
From the above responses, we can clearly say that Malware attack, software/hardware failure, and Human errors are considered the major reasons for data loss.
Findings on backup solution implementation
Around 71% of the respondents said they have a backup solution in place.
22% of the respondents are backing up their mission-critical data using a manual script, and nearly 52% of them faced data loss.
7% of the respondents are neither using any backup solution nor implementing manual scripts to backup their data, and out of them 72% of faced a major data loss.
Findings on backup deployment
Around 61% of the participants are looking for an onsite backup solution, 38% are looking for offsite backups. The number of respondents looking for a cloud-based backup solution is higher than offsite, and it is nearly 48%.
If we look closer, 22% of the respondents are only looking for an onsite backup copy, and 17% are looking for an offsite copy along with the onsite backups.
10% of the respondents felt it is better to have 3 copies of backup data – one in each of the following environments – local, offsite and cloud.
20% of the respondents wanted to have a copy of backup data only in the cloud.
Surprisingly, 25% of the users wanted to archive a copy of data to the tape media for long term archival.
Findings on the reasons to look for an alternative backup solution
A shocking yet interesting conclusion is that only 39% of the IT admins who participated in the survey are happy with their current backup solution, while the remaining 61% wanted to switch to a new backup solution sooner or later.
High pricing and difficulty in managing their backup data are the major reasons the respondents are looking for an alternative solution which comprises up to 76%. Not able to meet the RPO or RTO is the reason for 20% of the respondents to look for an alternative.
Some of the other reasons include the time taken to complete a backup process, the complexity of the current backup solution, and not being cloud-ready.
There are numerous ways to avoid data loss. You can add layers of defense mechanism to protect your data against malware attack.
Setting up a firewall, installing antivirus or antimalware software, using complex passwords are some fundamental steps against malware attack.
Other data loss prevention steps include:
- Keeping the computers in safe, dry and dust-free areas
- Regular backup of your business-critical data and verifying the recoverability of the backup data
- Replicate the backup data and store in multiple locations for disaster recovery
- Use software programs to detect impending problems on computer hardware
Select a data backup solution that supports backing up your diverse IT environment, a single solution should backup your physical and virtualized IT environment. The backup should allow you to flexibly backup the data at image, application or file level. It is always recommended to select a solution that allows you to store a copy of backup data on an offsite location or cloud or in Tape media.
Data protection is critical for every organization regardless of size or budget. However, the cost of data protection solutions can be an obstacle in implementing an effective data protection strategy for small businesses. With Vembu’s free edition, you can backup unlimited physical servers, virtual servers, and workstations with enterprise-level functionalities at no cost.
Download now to get started with Vembu BDR Suite Free Edition.
Got questions? Email us at: vembu-support@vembu.com for answers.
Follow our Twitter and Facebook feeds for new releases, updates, insightful posts and more.
