Enterprise Disconnect With In-Cloud Data Protection Strategies – Ctera/Vanson Bourne

According to a research by CTERA Networks, Ltd, enterprise data protection strategies may not be fully aligned with IT modernization initiatives driven by cloud computing.

The research shows that while enterprises continue to migrate workloads to the cloud at a rapid pace, protection of cloud-based servers and applications has not fully evolved to meet enterprise requirements for BC and data availability.

CTERA’s new eBook, Game of Clouds, showcases the findings of CTERA’s inaugural cloud backup survey, and presents a deep look at the state of enterprise cloud data protection. A CTERA-commissioned study was conducted by research firm Vanson Bourne to examine the data protection strategies of 400 IT decision makers and IT specialists in organizations using the cloud for application deployment at U.S., German and French organizations. The study analyzes the benefits and pitfalls of current backup strategies, offers key considerations for organizations moving to the cloud, and looks at the impact of poor backup practices on BC.

In-cloud backup strategy

Key findings from the research include:
    •    Organizations are moving to the cloud at a rapid pace to realize efficiency gains, real-time scalability and cost savings. More than two-thirds (67%) of organizations deploy more than 25% of their applications in the cloud, and 37% plan to grow their cloud use by at least 25%, if not more. In addition, 54% of organizations are embracing a hybrid cloud strategy that leverages both on-premises and cloud services.
    •    But two out of three companies (66%) strongly agree or somewhat agree there is less focus on backing up applications in the cloud due to a misconception that the cloud is inherently resilient compared to on-premises applications. This is not a surprise considering that 62% of organizations rely on the cloud provider to backup applications running on their platform.
    •    As more enterprise applications move to the cloud and threats such as ransomware become more pervasive, the criticality of BC prevails. 39% of respondents claim that ensuring BC is the highest priority when backing up applications and data running in the cloud. And 71% of organizations cite data protection and availability as one of the biggest challenges when moving to the cloud.
    •    With more than a third of respondents (36%) reporting that the loss of data in the cloud would be more catastrophic than their data center crashing, and 14% of respondents claiming it would cost them their jobs, the need to get a cloud strategy right the first time is imperative.

“The enterprise’s move beyond traditional data centers has re-written the playbook for data protection in the cloud,” said Jeff Denworth, SVP marketing, CTERA. “As organizations adopt cloud and multi-cloud strategies, traditional backup tools fall down. Our research spotlights the key data protection considerations and challenges for enterprises as they look for simple, efficient and automated solutions that protect critical cloud-based applications.“