U.S. Companies Could Save $6 Billion Annually in File Restore With De-Dupe

Quantum Corp. released findings focused on file restore from its 2010 IT Manager Survey.

According to the survey, respondents spend an average of 131 hours worth of IT professionals’ time annually on file restore activities, with 65 percent restoring files at least once a week. Based on the average wage for IT professionals in the U.S., the findings suggest that the time spent on file restore activities across American companies each year equates to a staggering $9.5 billion.(Based on an average wage of $31.55 per hour for IT professionals – according to PayScale.com – and 2.3 million firms in the U.S. with 5 or more employees – according to the U.S. Census Bureau – assumed to have dedicated IT.)

However, the survey also found that those companies that are most efficient at file restoration predominantly use deduplication and complete restores in approximately one-third the average time of all respondents. If the broader U.S. market were to achieve similar data restore efficiencies, the potential annual savings for U.S. businesses would be approximately $6 billion.

The survey found that companies spend an average of nearly one-and-a-half hours per file restore, with some requiring nearly five hours. Additionally, 75 percent of respondents said that more than one person is involved in file restores, with nearly half reporting that three or more people have a role. In contrast, companies who are most efficient at file restoration are able to recover their data in 30 minutes on average, with the overwhelming majority relying on deduplication to do so.

"Time and time again we see Quantum customers cut their restore windows from hours to just minutes when they deploy deduplication appliances as part of their data protection strategy," said Janae Stow Lee, senior vice president, Disk and Software Products Group, Quantum. "However, many organizations view cumbersome file recovery as inevitable and do not realize how much time and money they could save. This survey validates the gains that our appliance customers have been telling us about for years, and it will help organizations understand the kind of gains available to them by leveraging deduplication to minimize the impact of file restores on IT resources and budgets."

Survey Methodology and Demographics
Quantum contracted with Toluna, a research service, to conduct a field survey of 300 North American IT professionals on topics related to data storage. All of the respondents had direct exposure to data storage practices within their organization and were not limited to Quantum customers. Thirty-two percent of those surveyed were employed at organizations with more than 1,000 employees, 51 percent at organizations with 100-999 employees and 17 percent at organizations with fewer than 100 employees. Spending results were weighted based on U.S. Census Bureau data to arrive at results representative of U.S. businesses. Forty-nine percent of respondents considered themselves to be ‘average’ buyers, 35 percent identified themselves as ‘leading-edge’ buyers and 16 percent described themselves as ‘conservative.’