100% IT Managers Report Data Security Incident in Past Year

Quantum Corp. released findings focused on disaster recovery from its 2010 IT Manager Survey. Every single respondent reported at least one data security incident in the past year, with the most cited being virus attacks (43 percent) and hardware corruption (40 percent).

In addition, approximately one in five respondents had faced a natural disaster while similar percentages had to address issues resulting from lost or stolen devices and hacking.

Most survey respondents expressed concern about the risk posed by data security incidents. Eighty-seven percent said they feel their data is vulnerable in the event of such incidents, with nearly half reporting that their data is "somewhat" or "extremely" vulnerable (as opposed to "slightly" or "not at all" vulnerable).

At the same time, the survey confirmed that data security issues have a definite business impact. According to the results, it took respondents an average of 10.5 hours to resume normal operations after a data disaster, with more than 25 percent saying it took 11 hours or more, including 13 percent that reported delays of at least a day.

"As the survey results show, at some point an organization will be affected by a disaster that puts critical data at risk and impacts business operations; it’s not a matter of if, just when," said Mike Dickstein, senior vice president, Marketing and Alliances, Quantum. "The good news is that disk-based deduplication has enabled cost-effective replication that – combined with tape and the advantages of removable media – provides a comprehensive disaster recovery strategy for addressing the full range of risks."

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."