Among IT Managers Using Tape Only, 75% in D2D Within 12 Months

ExaGrid Systems, Inc. announced the results of a 2012 survey of 1,200 IT managers which shows widespread dissatisfaction with the capabilities of many existing backup systems to keep up with requirements for faster backups with permanently short backup windows as data grows, DR, virtual server backup and recovery, and backup system costs.
 
The dissatisfaction stems largely from delayed investments by many organizations in modernizing backup systems in recent years, which leaves existing backup systems often unable to protect growing amounts of mission-critical data. The survey was conducted on ExaGrid’s behalf by IDG Research Services.
 
Nearly 40% of IT managers report that their routine nightly backups exceed the backup window, with 30% saying their companies exceed the backup window by more than four hours.

Many IT managers report that legacy backup systems are inadequate to meet business imperatives for low TCO, scalability, ease of administration and management and WAN-efficient replication. The use of tape-based systems is expected to decline as IT departments move to modernize their backup infrastructures, with increased investments in disk-based systems, according to the survey.
 
According to a September 2011 research note entitled The Future of Backup May Not Be Backup published by Gartner Inc. analyst Dave Russell, "There are many challenges with backup solutions today. The top concerns are related to the cost, capability and complexity of currently deployed backup systems. Gartner hears daily from organizations that are seeking significant improvements in their backup practices, and we continue to hear that organizations feel that the backup process needs to be dramatically, not incrementally, improved."
 
Conducted in May 2012, the objective of the ExaGrid survey was to examine backup and recovery challenges among IT managers.

                           Why IT Wants Disk Backup Solution
                            With De-Dupe in Grid Architecture

  (Source: IDG Research Services, May 2012)

The survey revealed several trends and perceptions
about existing backup systems.

Backup challenges mounting
Among the top nightly backup challenges
cited by IT managers are the following:

• 54% said that their backup windows are taking too long.
• 51% said they are facing growing business requirements for more reliable and efficient DR
• 48% said they face long restore and recovery times

Widening expectations gap
There is a growing gap between what outdated
backup systems can achieve and even greater
requirements for faster backup and recovery
that come with explosive data growth:

• While 75% of respondents said low TCO was extremely important or very important, only 45% said their systems delivered this effectively. In addition, 72% said avoiding costly "forklift upgrades" and product obsolescence was either extremely important or very important, but just 41% said their current systems were able to deliver this.

Protecting virtualized servers
Existing backup solutions need improvement
to meet goals for protecting virtualized servers:

• Just 44% of respondents said their current backup system either meets or exceeds their offsite DR goals for virtualized servers. In addition, only roughly half said their systems are meeting goals for protecting virtualized servers with regard to backup windows and restore/recovery times.

Data is vulnerable
IT managers have major concerns
with the capabilities of their backup systems
to keep their data secure:

• The vast majority of IT managers (97%) believe that their data is somewhat or extremely vulnerable to data protection or security incidents, and most have experienced one or more of these incidents in the past year.
• Following a data protection incident, it takes an average of about seven hours to resume normal operations. IDC estimates that it costs businesses an average of $70,000 per hour of downtime, further highlighting the need for enhanced backup and recovery.

Disk investment increasing
IT managers are interested
in disk-based backup solutions with deduplication
in a grid architecture, citing the advantages
of faster backups, reduced management burden,
no expanding backup windows as data grows,
avoidance of forklift upgrades
and elimination of potential unexpected costs over time:

• Among respondents using tape only, 75% said they expect to be using a disk-based method within 12 months.
• Usage of disk-based data deduplication appliances is expected to increase by 48% among respondents using tape only.

Bill Hobbib, VP of marketing at ExaGrid, said: "What comes through loud and clear from these survey results is a sense that IT organizations can no longer delay the modernization of their backup systems. IT organizations are under pressure like never before to deliver on business requirements for reduced backup and recovery times, more reliable DR and low total system costs. Moving to a disk-based backup system that can scale seamlessly to handle data growth rates of 30% or more is becoming a top IT priority."

To read the complete survey