Three out of every four (76%) IT decision makers (ITDMs) suffered a severe loss of critical data in their organisation and almost half (45%) among them permanent data loss, according to the latest annual research from Arcserve.
The study covered a survey of 1,121 ITDMs, all with a budget or technical decision-making responsibility for data management, data protection, and storage solutions at a company with 100-2,500 employees and at least 5 TB of data.
The survey was fielded in Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, France, Germany, India, Japan, Korea, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada.
Findings show that many organisations could not maintain business continuity on time once data was lost or compromised even as it is vital for businesses to recover data quickly, especially in today’s always-on world.
Five in every six (83%) respondents said that 12 hours or less is an acceptable level of downtime for critical systems before there is a measurable negative business impact.
Still, only 52% could recover from a severe data loss in 12 hours or less, and 29% of the businesses surveyed couldn’t recover data for one day or more.
Results also revealed that a new approach to disaster recovery is needed. Organisations should continuously update, test, and document their disaster recovery plan to build data resilience.
The importance of protecting and recovering data should also be elevated to all company levels with specific goals.
Almost all (95%) of respondents said their company has a disaster recovery plan. However, only 24% have a mature plan that is well documented, tested, and updated.
Also, 83% said their organisations include data resilience in their strategies. Still, only 23% have a mature approach with associated goals to track progress.
David Lenz, Arcserve VP in the Asia-Pacific region, said the latest survey reinforces the business imperative for organisations to implement a data resilience strategy that incorporates mature data backup and disaster recovery plans.
“We live in a world of growing ransomware attacks and frequent natural disasters,” said Lenz. “Any downtime from data loss can be destructive for a business from impacting sales to losing customer loyalty.”
He said data is a priceless commodity, and the findings underscore the importance of building data resilience with a robust data backup and recovery plan with data integrity at the core to prevent severe business disruptions.
