57% of Firms in USA, UK and South Africa Planning for Massive Data Migrations in 2012

Mimecast, supplier of cloud-based email archiving, continuity and security for Microsoft Exchange and Office 365, unveiled the results from its 2011 Great Email Migration Report, a survey including responses from 500 IT decision makers on their attitudes and plans for email migration.

The research was conducted by Loudhouse Research and found 57 percent of companies in the U.S., U.K. and South Africa are planning to make massive data migrations in the next year due to exceeding storage limits.

The U.S. market in particular demonstrated the most urgency around the need to formalize and execute migration and email modernization plans, with 65 percent of the respondents citing plans to upgrade their existing systems in the next 12 months. Additionally, 84 percent of those surveyed within the U.S. expect to recoup any costs associated with an email migration within 12 months, with half of those respondents anticipating complete ROI within six months.

On average, 65 percent of global respondents anticipate the size of their organization’s migration data to be in excess of 100GB, or the equivalent of 127.2 million four-drawer filing cabinets of data. Similarly, 26 percent of U.S. respondents anticipate their migration to exceed 500GB of data.

"Data will swallow businesses whole if nothing is done to meet storage needs," said Peter Bauer, co-founder and CEO of Mimecast. "Email will always remain the day-to-day cornerstone of modern business communications for organizations of all types and sizes, and it’s time for organizations to keep these systems current and better meet the storage needs of both employees and the business. Data migration is now an urgent matter rather than a ‘nice-to-have’."

This survey focused on identifying businesses’ concerns, pain points and opportunities associated with improving their enterprise storage and migration strategies.

Top-level findings from respondents:

• Organizations Strapped By Current Storage Limits: While 58 percent of surveyed businesses recognize the need to maintain modern email systems and expand storage, 58 percent of the respondents are resistant to any changes to their current email system due to perceived risks around lowered performance.
• Data Loss and Volume Trump Cost Concerns: Businesses’ largest concerns stem from maintaining data integrity, with 52 percent of U.S. respondents expressing concerns about potential data loss. However, 73 percent of global organizations expect to see ROI around their data migration.
• Businesses Eyeing Microsoft Exchange: Microsoft remains the top platform for businesses, with 55 percent of U.S. companies planning to migrate to Microsoft Exchange 2010 on premise within the next 12 months, with 58 percent noting the platform’s cost benefits.

Mimecast’s 2011 Great Email Migration Report is a survey including responses from 500 IT decision makers from the U.S., the UK and South Africa and was conducted in July 2011 with Loudhouse Research. Responses were garnered from a range of industries including IT / telecom companies, public sector, manufacturing, and banking and financial services.

More information on the Great Email Migration Report