The Acronis Global Disaster Recovery Indexdocs.media.bitpipe.com/io_10x/io_102267/item_485929... · The Acronis Global Disaster Recovery (DR) Index 2012 is the industry’s largest

The AcronisGlobal DisasterRecovery Index:2012

An Annual Worldwide

Ranking of International

Confidence in Backup and

Disaster Recovery (DR)

Readiness, Capabilities

and Practices.

In conjunction with the

Ponemon Institute.

Copyright © Acronis, Inc., 2002 – 2012

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Table of Contents

Executive Overview .................................................................................................................................................... 3

What is the Acronis Global Disaster Recovery Index? ................................................................................................. 4

The Survey Format ...................................................................................................................................................... 4

Core Findings: Confidence is on the rise ...................................................................................................................... 5

The Index Rankings: The more things change, the more they stay the same ................................................................. 6

Key Global Findings ................................................................................................................................................... 9

SMB adoption of virtualisation will outpace that of the enterprise in 2012 ..................................................................10

Virtual data at greater risk than physical data ............................................................................................................12

Cloud gains momentum but still not delivering on the hype ....................................................................................... 13

Offsite backup strategy still lacking ..........................................................................................................................14

Human error is the biggest cause of system downtime ............................................................................................... 15

The pure play dilemma: Businesses still fail to consolidate .........................................................................................16

Recommendations for Backup and DR; a perspective from the survey sponsor ...........................................................17

Appendices .............................................................................................................................................................. 18

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Executive Overview: Protecting data in a tumultuous world2011 has been a year of political strife, economic turmoil and environmental disasters on an unprecedented global scale that have affected the lives and livelihoods of billions of people.

• With devastating flooding in Australia, Brazil and Thailand, deadly earthquakes in New Zealand, a near apocalyptic tsunami in Japan, typhoons in the Philippines and almost 100 storms hitting various parts of the US, the world has watched the destructive power of mother nature.

• Meanwhile, popular uprisings around the world have fuelled civil unrest, in some cases leading to civil war, and ruthless dictators have themselves been ruthlessly toppled.

• A global downturn, failing economies and a crisis in the Eurozone added another brutal dimension to an already extremely tumultuous year.

During 2011, untold thousands of businesses were directly, or indirectly, affected by the political strife, economic turmoil and environmental disasters that shaped the year. Many of those hardest hit, perhaps the majority, will never recover.

Business leaders and senior executives around the world have been given a wake-up call to reassess backup and disaster recovery (DR). They must plan for the worst and ensure they have the tools, and the means, to endure the unexpected.

Few businesses today can survive major data loss without a comprehensive backup and DR strategy in place. Yet most businesses face a common challenge – their business data is growing at an insane pace while their IT budgets are, in real terms, flat-lining.

According to the survey findings in this report, a typical SMB today manages more than 100 servers, desktops and laptops and produces almost 40TB of fresh data each year. That is an awful lot of data to protect. IT managers told us the following about mounting levels of data they are managing:

• “It’sconfusingandchaotic…itincreasesdataloss”

• “Itaffectsprofitabilityandproductivity”

• “Itincreasesbusinessrisk”

The survey findings suggest that the disasters of 2011 have been a catalyst for positive change when it comes to most businesses testing their backup and DR operations. However, for all the positives in the survey, too many strategic-level negatives linger when it comes to keeping the business-critical digital assets of a company secure, protected and immediately available.

The Acronis Global Disaster Recovery (DR) Index 2012 is the industry’s largest backup and disaster recovery benchmark. Businesses can look to this report and understand what it takes to be a leader in disaster recovery. The Index explores just how much has changed over the past 12 months and whether businesses around the world are taking the right steps to protect their second most valuable asset after their employees: their data.

A typical SMB produces almost 40TB of fresh data each year

The disasters of 2011 may have been a catalyst for positive change when it comes to most businesses testing their backup and DR operations. However, for all the positives in the survey, too many strategic-level negatives linger when it comes to keeping the business-critical digital assets of a company secure.

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What is the Acronis Global Disaster Recovery (DR) Index?In its second year, the Acronis Global DR Index is an annual barometer that provides a country-level ranking of backup and DR confidence levels and capabilities of businesses around the world. The aim of the Index is to give all businesses a clearer understanding of how their confidence and capabilities compare to those of their peers in other countries.

While attitudes and perceptions of confidence vary from one culture to another, the Index provides all businesses with a template of trends and strategies that will help improve their backup and DR confidence and capabilities.

The Index is based on a study commissioned by Acronis and conducted by the Ponemon Institute, an international research firm and respected think-tank on data protection trends. The survey is based on responses of almost 6,000 IT practitioners (double last year’s 3,000 and the largest survey in the industry) in the original thirteen countries and five new countries: Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and United States. With the world looking to emerging markets to deliver economic growth, adding the BRIC nations will provide a solid benchmark of how these countries are performing in terms of technical excellence. The Index was conducted across a broad range of industries. (Appendix 1 and 2).

The survey format

The survey used a combination of omnibus and custom survey sampling methods that include proprietary samples of qualified IT practitioners in small-to-medium-sized businesses (mid-market companies with no more than 1,000 seats*). The Ponemon Institute carried out all phases of this research, which was conducted between September and October 2011.

To create the Index, each country was ranked based on the aggregated responses to 11 questions about their backup and DR readiness, capabilities and practices (Appendix 3).

The questions gauged IT managers’ confidence in their DR based on their:

• Ability and willingness to adopt new technology

• Confidence in their procedures and policies

• Level of executive support and budget/resources

• Ability to recover rapidly after downtime

Each respondent was given a weighted score for each answer:

Strongly agree with a statement 5Agree with a statement 2.5Neutral 0Disagree with a statement -2.5Strongly disagree with a statement -5

* Not more than 500 in Australia.

All comparative research numbers are based on the original 13 countries surveyed in 2010 in comparison with the same 13 countries in 2011.

The Index is based on a study conducted by the Ponemon Institute, an international research firm and respected think-tank on data protection trends. The survey is based on responses of almost 6,000 IT practitioners (double last year’s 3,000 and the largest survey in the industry) in the original thirteen countries and five new countries (BRIC and Saudi Arabia).

With the world looking to emerging markets, adding the BRIC nations will provide a solid benchmark of how these countries are performing in terms of technical excellence

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Core Findings: Confidence is on the riseThe survey found that like-for-like global confidence has risen 14% over the past 12 months. The most noticeable increase in confidence is about having enough of the right resources (tools and environment) and the right technologies for the job to cope with a disaster. In both instances, business confidence has more than doubled in the last 12 months (142% and 109% respectively).

Having enough tools to do the job seems to have a direct impact on the ability to recover quickly in the event of system failure with an increase in confidence of 45%. This is backed up by a 66% increase in confidence that businesses would not suffer substantial downtime in the event of a serious event or incident.

However, these findings should not hide the fact that almost a third (32%) of businesses are still concerned that their backup and disaster recovery operations will fail in the wake of a serious incident, and a similar number (34%) feel they would suffer substantial downtime as a result.

There is growing room for improvement in several areas:

• Backup procedures and policies appear much less well documented and confidence in this area during 2011 dropped by 44%.

• Similarly, businesses are 16% less confident about having enough controls and procedures in place.

• Businesses haven’t addressed a shortfall in qualified staff in 2010. 2011 saw an 8% decrease in confidence that staff are sufficiently qualified to handle a disaster or major outage, potentially due to tough economic times.

Most disappointing of all is a 13% drop in boardroom level support. Almost half (47%) now feel that business executives are not supportive of their backup and disaster recovery operations, despite 2011 being one of the most tumultuous years on record. Reasons for this include:

• “The executives want to hear good news. Disasterrecoveryisalwaysbadnews”

• “I’membarrassedbyourbackupandDR”

• “IToperatesinasilofromotherdepartments”

Budgets stayed flat year on year with no change on backup and recovery spend. About two thirds (67%) admit to spending 10% or less of their IT budget on backup and recovery operations and 22% admit to spending nothing at all. The biggest challenges with regards to backup and recovery still remain the same as last year with two out of every five citing lack of budget and IT resources as the main barriers to successful DR.

In summary, 2011 has seen mixed findings. Some areas have leapt in confidence while others have gone backwards. While the overall increase is positive, several lessons still need be learnt.

Chart: What is your biggest challenge with regards to backup and disaster recovery?

47% feel that business executives are not supportive of their disaster recovery operations, despite 2011 being one of the most tumultuous years on record.

Lack of budget0%

5%

10%

15%

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25%

Lack ofIT resources

Lack ofinternationalknowledge

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We have notpreviously

experienceddata loss,

therefore don’tsee it as a threat

We havetoo much data

to manage

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The Index Rankings: The more things change, the more they stay the sameDespite a 14% increase in overall confidence, most of the country rankings have remained almost exactly the same; a rising tide lifts all boats. There have been some minor shifts in the rankings. For example, Sweden and Norway have improved, allowing them to leapfrog Singapore which has made no progress in the past 12 months.

Of the five new countries added to the survey last year, only one made it into the top 10; India’s confidence Index was 1.21 placing it 9th.

The US snuck past the UK in 2011 which, when combined with India’s high initial placing, meant that the UK has slipped two positions, from 9th to 11th. There have also been some ‘most improved’ regions including Norway (improved 35%) and France (improved 48%). Most notable is Australia which more than doubled in confidence in the past year, showing that when disaster strikes it became more confident in its DR capabilities.

2011 average: 1.14 (2010 average 1.00)

Despite a 14% increase in overall confidence most of the country rankings have remained almost exactly the same; a rising tide lifts all boats.

Low Confidence

-5 5o

Neutral Very Confident

DE

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Acronis Global Disaster Recovery Index 2012

2011 2012

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A) Undefeated champions: Germany & the Netherlands

Although the 2010 leaders retained their first and second positions in the Index for the second year running, their increase in confidence has underperformed the market average increase of 14%. German confidence has increased by less than 1% while Dutch courage has actually declined in real terms by 2%. Confidence clearly has a ceiling even amongst the most thoroughly organised, highly qualified and well-resourced regions, potentially a sign that crisis in the Eurozone is taking its toll.

• German confidence in their backup and DR operations rose 21% in 2011 with 70% of having little concern that their backup and DR operations will fail in the event of a serious incident.

• Meanwhile, Dutch organisations were 25% more confident that they had the right resources (growth from 51% to 64%) and 30% more confident they had the right technologies to address backup and DR.

B) The challengers: Nordics & Swiss closing in fast on Asia

Japan and Hong Kong maintained their respective 3rd and 4th positions, but have been closely followed this year by Switzerland, Sweden and Norway. The gap has also narrowed because Singaporean confidence declined in 2011 and the country slipped two rankings. Like the German and Dutch leaders, Japan and Hong Kong’s marginal increase in confidence, 1% and 2% respectively, has vastly underperformed against the average Index increase, again indicating that there is a ceiling even with high confidence.

• Japan has the highest confidence in their backup and DR operations with 78% having little concern that their backup and DR operations will fail, perhaps a sign that, when put to the test, the country is largely prepared for disaster.

• Amongst this group, Hong Kong businesses struggle the most when it comes to getting support from the board. Almost a third (31%) claim their business executives are not supportive of their backup and DR strategies, an increase of 35% on the previous year (11%).

• Accounting for its comparatively higher position on the Index, Norwegian organisations are 28% more confident they have boardroom support, 33% more confident that they have enough resources, and 12% more confident that they have the necessary technologies than during the previous year.

• Similarly, Swedish organisations were 22% more confident that they have boardroom support, 42% more confident that they have enough qualified staff, and 23% more confident that they have the necessary technologies than during the previous year.

India gets a special mention since, even though this is the first year confidence has been measured in that country, it raced into the 9th position with an Index score of 1.21 which is the second in confidence among English-speaking countries, behind Singapore.

78% of Japanese IT managers have little concern that their backup and DR operations will fail, perhaps a sign that when put to the test, the country is largely prepared for disaster.

India gets a special mention. It raced into 9th position with an Index score of 1.21, which is the second in confidence among English-speaking countries, behind Singapore.

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C) The middle ground: English-speaking regions fall short, again

Despite the US, UK and Australia reporting below-average confidence levels for the second consecutive year, each region has seen confidence levels improve.

Although Australia scores the lowest of the three, its confidence more than doubled in 2011 growing by 136%. Australian organisations are 36% more confident that their backup and DR operations won’t fail. Like Japan, once a nation has battled through natural disaster their confidence in backup seems to rise. This increase over the previous year is supported by the facts that organisations in Australia were:

• 22% more confident that they had boardroom support;

• 32% more confident that they have enough resources;

• 39% more confident that they had the necessary technologies.

Confidence amongst US organisations improved twice as much as the UK (35% vs. 17%) and as a result the US overtook the UK in the Index rankings. However, both still have a long way to go.

D) The laggard: China

Although confidence amongst Chinese organisations is extremely low, it falls between the middle ground and the losers. It’s interesting that in some areas, the Chinese are fairly confident, 36% feel that their backup and DR is well managed and 46% believe that they have the qualified IT staff necessary to manage backup and DR. At the same time, 43% are concerned that their backup and disaster recovery operations would fail in the wake of a serious incident or event and the lack of executive support is below industry average (39%). Not the most comfortable reading for the world’s second-biggest economy.

E) Room to grow: Brazil, France, Italy, Russia and Saudi Arabia

Of the regions surveyed last year, Italy and France remain the least confident about their backup and DR, most likely because they claim to have the least support and resources and the worst practices and processes.

They are joined in this category by Russia, Brazil and Saudi Arabia who have a lot of work to do in getting their backup and disaster recovery strategies right. India is the only BRIC member that is actually above average in confidence levels.

While Italy’s confidence levels has barely shifted, France experienced one of the largest year-on-year increases in confidence of 48%. Key reasons for French confidence increasing include being:

• 12% more confident that they have enough resources;

• 21% more confident in documentation of backup and DR process and procedures.

43% of Chinese IT managers are concerned that their backup and disaster recovery operations would fail in the wake of a serious incident. Not the most comfortable reading for the world’s second-biggest economy.

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Key Global Findings

Key Global Finding 1: SMB adoption of virtualisation will outpace that of the enterprise in 2012

Key Global Finding 3: Cloud gains momentum but still not delivering on the hype

Key Global Finding 5: Human error is the biggest cause of system downtime which costs most businesses USD $366,363 a year

Key Global Finding 2: Virtual data at greater risk than physical data

Key Global Finding 4: Offsite backup strategy still lacking

Key Global Finding 6: The ‘pure play’ dilemma. Businesses still fail to consolidate their backup and DR Tools

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Key Global Finding 1: SMB adoption of virtualisation will outpace that of the enterprise in 2012The survey found that for the first time, server virtualisation will be adopted at a much faster pace among small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) than amongst enterprises. A recent Gartner report showed that virtualization adoption will increase in the enterprise by 14% in 2012. Meanwhile, the Acronis Global Disaster Recovery Index shows that SMB adoption will increase by 21% in the SMB this year. (Gartner’s Virtualisation Research Virtual machines will slow in the Enterprise, Grow in the Cloud Thomas J Bittman, Lydia Leong, 4 March 2011, RA1010182011).

Despite the buzz surrounding virtualisation, the survey findings suggest a slower pace of adoption than previously expected. Business had previously predicted that the percentage of virtual servers in use by 2011 would reach 33%. According to this survey, the average percentage of virtual servers in use during 2011 was just 24%. Businesses have since revised their predictions downwards and expect just 29% of their servers to be virtual by the end of 2012, although this would still represent an annual increase of 21%.

Despite these apparently lower-than-expected figures, almost a third (32%) of those surveyed said that over half their production servers were virtual in 2011. Virtualisation, while clearly making huge inroads into many businesses around the world, still represents a huge and long-term opportunity.

Chart: Projected growth. What percentage of your production servers will be virtualised next year?

More than 50%

41 to 50%

31 to 40%

21 to 30%

11 to 20%

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Under 5%

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0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%

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2012

In 2012, for the first time, server virtualisation will be adopted at a much faster pace among SMBs than the enterprise.

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Chart: Actual growth. What percentage of your production servers are virtualised today?

The top drivers for adopting virtualisation cited by global businesses were:

1. Increased efficiency (24%);

2. Flexibility and speed of deployment (20%);

3. Cost savings (18%)

For SMBs, the main driver to virtualise is not to cut costs, but to increase their efficiency and agility.

However, trends in virtualisation vary widely across the globe. Hong Kong has been identified as the most prolific user of virtual servers with 55% of businesses claiming that over half their production servers are virtualised. Scarcity of physical real estate and over-utilised power provisions could be two big drivers for Hong Kong’s aggressive virtual server adoption rate.

At the other end of the scale lies Italy where 41% of mid-sized companies still have no virtual machines whatsoever. Just one in ten Italian firms have embraced virtualisation to the extent that more than half their production servers are virtualised. Despite these shortcomings, Italy experienced twice the global average increase (18% vs. 9%) in the percentage of virtual servers deployed in 2011.

Virtualisation will still take time for regions stuck at the bottom of the Index. Italy and Brazil are two countries where respectively 39% and 27% of companies appear to have absolutely no plans to virtualise a single server during 2012.

For most regions, 2012 looks to be another busy year for virtualisation as SMBs squeeze the most out of their existing server and storage infrastructure. A healthy 38% of organisations surveyed expect to have over half their production servers virtualised in 2012.

A healthy 38% of organisations surveyed expect to have over half their production servers virtualised in 2012.

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Key Global Finding 2: Virtual data at greater risk than physical dataDespite virtualisation gaining traction in the SMB space, most companies are falling short when it comes to protecting data accumulating on their virtual machines.

• A third (33%), the same as 12 months ago, admitted that they do not back up virtual servers as often as their physical ones.

• Almost half (49%) back up their virtual machines weekly or monthly.

• Barely a third (37%) back up virtual machines each day.

The worst culprits are in Britain (60%), France (58%), Italy (56%) and Brazil (57%), where over half of the organisations questioned admitted to not backing up their virtual servers as frequently as their physical ones.

When you consider that the monetary value of data hosted on virtual servers is admitted by respondents as almost equal to that hosted on their physical servers, this is worrying

Chart: How often do you back up your virtual servers?

Hourly0%

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Daily Weekly Monthly Irregularintervals

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A third of organisations do not back up virtual servers as often as physical ones.

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There are still some serious concerns regarding the use of cloud as part of the backup and disaster recovery operations that need to be addressed. Respondents cite recovery of data in the event of a disaster (56%), security risks in the cloud (39%) and workload and complexity (33%) as the top three issues and these haven’t changed from last year.

A significant amount of companies have cited a real lack of trust in cloud providers. More than one in five companies in Sweden (25%), France (19%), Italy (23%), Norway (23%) and Brazil (21%) still don’t have any of their current infrastructures in the cloud.

Despite this, a few are making some progress as Italy saw the largest cloud adoption growth rate of 325%. To put this into perspective, Norway had the second largest growth rate of 86%.

The top three benefits of using the cloud for backup and disaster recovery include lower IT operating costs (50%), additional or flexible storage space (20%) and improved compliance. The first two benefits are identical to last year but cloud backup for compliance reasons has grown by 60% (16% up from 10% in 2010).

Key Global Finding 3: Cloud gains momentum but still not delivering on the hypeOf the 6,000 respondents questioned, 83% now have some form of cloud-based infrastructure, which is a growth of 13%. But overall, the cloud represents only 19% of their entire infrastructure.

In 2010, companies predicted they would have 30% of their infrastructure in the cloud in the next twelve months, an increase of 87% (16%-30%). But in reality, companies only grew their cloud-based infrastructure by 19% (16%-19%).

However, the hype could finally become a reality because more than one in four (26%) are predicting that more than 50% of their IT infrastructure will be cloud based in 2012.

Chart: Projected growth. Approximately how much of your IT infrastructure will be cloud based in the next year?

The hype could become a reality with more than one in four predicting that more than 50% of their IT infrastructure will be cloud based in 2012.

The top three benefits of using the cloud for backup and disaster recovery include lower IT operating costs (50%), additional or flexible storage space (20%) and improved compliance (16%).

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In Australia, where horrendous flooding occurred in early 2011, over a third (36%) still don’t have an offsite backup strategy, same as the previous year.

• France, UK and Russia are just as bad with respectively 37%, 35% and 33% of organisations in those countries lacking an offsite backup strategy.

• Brazil and Italy are the worst offenders with almost half, 43% and 49% respectively, not carrying out offsite backups.

Instead of automating offsite backups, it appears that almost half (42%) are still relying on a more traditional method of physically backing up onsite on either a tape or disk backup and then taking it offsite each day. Because this relies on an individual employee being responsible for and remembering to carry out this task, this is where human error can occur.

Key Global Finding 4: Offsite backup strategy still lackingLocal backup and recovery software is essential for recovering from problems such as a mistakenly deleted file, or from a crash of a server or workstation. But local backups cannot protect data from the severe consequences of a natural or man-made disaster that involves physical damage to, and potential destruction of, IT equipment. When data is lost permanently, and no offsite backup is available, many businesses will be unable to recover and will, most likely, cease operating in the near future.

Despite these risks, almost a quarter (23%) of all businesses still don’t have an offsite backup strategy in place today. This is a near identical finding to the previous year and indicates that attitudes towards offsite backup have not changed.

Almost a quarter of all businesses still don’t have an offsite backup strategy in place today. This is a near identical finding to the previous year and indicates that attitudes towards offsite backup have not changed.

Taking a tapebackup off site

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We do not havean off site backup

and disasterrecovery

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Chart: What does your offsite backup and disaster recovery strategy involve?

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Key Global Finding 5: Human error is the biggest cause of system downtime which costs most businesses USD $366,363 a year

While nature might be the cause of the most dramatic disasters to befall a company, human error is still the most common cause (60%) of system downtime. Being unable to recover immediately from system failure, especially as a result of human error, is a costly business.

The vast majority of organisations surveyed (86%) had experienced one or more instances of system downtime during the past 12 months that had, on average, lasted 2.2 days. Businesses calculated that the lost productivity due directly to this downtime costs them each approximately USD $366,363 per year.

Chart: What are the main causes of unplanned system downtime?

One of the problems is that 44% are still carrying out file-only backups instead of system and file backups. Taking a backup image of the full system, including the operating system, applications and system preferences, allows organisations to recover an entire server or workstation quickly. This approach avoids the need to carry out the painstaking task of manually loading and configuring software that is, more often than not, the longest part of the recovery procedure.

While the volume of data has increased, DR budgets have stayed flat year on year, with budgets remaining at 10% of all IT spend. Over a third cite lack of budget as a reason for why their backup and recovery is not given enough priority. With a company’s data being its life blood, it’s worrying that protecting it against disaster is still not higher on a business’ agenda.

60%

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14%10% Human error

Unexpected updates and patches

Server room environment issues

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Virus or malware attack

Hardware error / theft

Natural disaster (e.g. earthquake)

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Key Global Finding 6: The ‘pure play’ dilemma. Businesses still fail to consolidate their backup and DR ToolsOne of the reasons that companies do such a poor job of backing up their virtual servers could be that over half (53%) use separate backup solutions for their physical and virtual environments. Companies are clearly still buying separate tools from ‘pure players’ for each of their environments, instead of buying one solution that fits all. Reasons cited for using separate solutions include:

• “Differentpeopleareinvolvedinphysicalandvirtualbackup”

• “Physicalserversareeasiertobackupthanvirtualservers”

• “Legacyapplicationsarenotcompatible”

Almost a third (32%), and the same as last year, of all respondents use three or more different solutions as part of their backup and DR strategy, a costly and inefficient strategy. Businesses are still failing to consolidate their DR tools, making the management of backup and DR, plus the migration of data across different environments, unnecessarily more complicated and time-consuming. In actual fact, 76% of those surveyed recognise that a comprehensive solution linking physical, virtual and cloud protection would offer the most significant enhancement to their backup and disaster recovery operations, and this is why:

• “Itwouldmakeussleepbetteratnight”

• “Itreducesrisk,complexityandTCO”

• “OurCIOprefersonesolution”

It’s clear that many companies still have a long way to go before they are able to be confident in their backup and DR operations. Having just one backup and DR solution for all environments would make things easier. 94% of businesses want reliable and easy-to-use solutions, up slightly from 91% last year, and it’s the resellers that can help them choose the right solution and guide them to a solid backup and DR strategy.

Chart: Number of different backup applications used by organisations surveyed

76% want a single solution to link physical, virtual and cloud environments.

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Recommendations for Backup and Disaster Recovery; a perspective from the survey sponsorComparing global attitudes and confidence levels regarding regional backup and DR capabilities gives organisations an opportunity for a peer comparison far beyond the organisation next door.

The survey has again identified extreme differences in confidence levels around the world and these differences reflect the diverse nature of global business.

The one common ground all businesses share, regardless of their origin, is their desire to take the right steps to protect their business-critical digital assets. Not only do most regions need to take backup and DR more seriously in terms of investment and resources, but it also needs a higher degree of executive buy-in. The latest survey showed that the opposite is happening with regards to boardroom support.

For most businesses, a service’s success is underpinned by its ability to deliver ease of use, cost effectiveness and flexibility, and by its ability to implement measures quickly enough to affect a near immediate positive impact. The fact is, few businesses today can survive a major data loss without a comprehensive backup and DR strategy in place. The longer it takes to recover due to poor tools, processes or policies, the greater the direct negative impact will be on productivity.

With IT budgets under pressure, future investment in backup and DR solutions is likely to remain flat. Businesses face a triple whammy in 2012. They need to protect more data, fund it from a shrinking budget, and do it across more environments than ever before.

This requires IT managers to get smarter. Taking a holistic approach to backup and DR requires tools that can address backup and DR across physical, virtual and cloud environments.

Protecting data and IT systems is a journey because it constantly evolves. Even the most confident nations need to constantly monitor and manage their infrastructure as new technologies impact their business. This year, for example, the continued use of mobile devices for businesses purposes will bring a new dimension to a backup administrator’s role.

The fact is that hybrid environments will continue to flourish and we will see a shift to more vendors developing multi-hypervisor and multi-environment solutions. Managing data in a hybrid world remains a challenge and some of this is down to a lack of understanding about technologies available. Companies need to make sure they have one backup and DR solution to protect their hybrid world.

To find out more about the results from the largest DR benchmark in the industry and to take the survey yourself please visit: eu.acronisinfo.com.

It’s clear though that many companies still have a long way to go before they are able to be confident in their backup and DR operations. Having just one backup and DR solution for all environments would make things easier.

Businesses face a triple whammy in 2012. They need to protect more data, fund it from a shrinking budget, and do it across more environments than ever before.

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Appendix 2: Chart: Industry breakdown of respondents

Appendix 1: Chart: Breakdown of respondents by country

*All respondents were filtered to ensure the sample has involvement in backup and DR .

To find out more about the results for the largest DR benchmark in the industry and to take the survey yourself, please visit eu.acronisinfo.com.

United Kingdom507 France

306

Germany520

Netherlands359

Italy235

Switzerland205

Australia311

Singapore201

Hong Kong233

Japan434

United States600

Sweden156

Norway144

Brazil415

China 311

India580

Russia258

Saudi Arabia213

4% 3%8%

4%

4%

13%

3%

6%4%9%

14%

10%

7%

7%5% Communications

Defense

Education & research

Energy

Entertainment and media

Financial services

Food service

Health & pharmaceuticals

Hospitality

Industrial

Appendices

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Appendix 3: Acronis Disaster Recovery Confidence Rank Index Questions

Please rate your opinion for the following 11 statements using the scale provided below each item.

Ourbackupanddisasterrecoveryoperationsarewellmanaged.

▫ Strongly Agree ▫ Agree ▫ Unsure ▫ Disagree ▫ Strongly Disagree

Wehavelittleconcernthatourbackupanddisasterrecoveryoperationswillfailinthewakeofaseriousincidentorevent.


Businessexecutivesaresupportiveofourorganisation’sbackupanddisastersecurityoperations.


Wehaveampleresourcesthatenablecomprehensivebackupanddisasterrecoveryoperations.


Wehaveampletechnologiesthatenablecomprehensivebackupanddisasterrecoveryoperations.


Wehaveamplecontrolsandproceduresthatenablecomprehensivebackupanddisasterrecoveryoperations.


Ourbackupanddisasterrecoveryproceduresandpoliciesarewelldocumented.


We would not suffer substantial downtime in the event our organisation experienced a serious incident or event(suchasweather,cyberattacksandsoforth).


OurITandsecuritypersonnelarequalifiedtoexecutebackupanddisasterrecoveryoperationsinthewakeofaseriousincidentorevent(suchasweather,cyberattacksandsoforth).


Themigrationtonewtechnologiessuchascloudcomputingandvirtualisationwillmakeiteasiertoensurebackupanddisasterrecoveryoperationsareefficientlymanaged.


Wecanrecoverquicklyintheeventofsystemdowntime.


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Acronis is a leading provider of easy-to-use disaster recovery and data protection solutions for physical, virtual and cloud environments. Its patented disk imaging technology enables corporations, SMBs and consumers to protect their digital assets. With Acronis’ disaster recovery, deployment and migration software, users

protect their digital information, maintain business continuity and reduce downtime. Acronis software is sold in more than 90 countries and available in up to 14 languages. For additional information, please visit www.acronis.eu. Follow Acronis on Twitter:http://twitter.com/acronis.

Ponemon Institute is dedicated to independent research and education that advances responsible information and privacy management practices within business and government. Our mission is to conduct high quality, empirical studies on critical issues affecting the management and security of sensitive information about people and organisations. As a member of the Council of American Survey Research Organisations

(CASRO) we uphold strict data confidentiality, privacy and ethical research standards. We do not collect any personally identifiable information from individuals or company identifiable information in our business research. Furthermore, we have strict quality standards to ensure that subjects are not asked extraneous, irrelevant or improper questions. For more information, visit www.ponemon.org.

About Acronis

About Ponemon Institute LLC

Copyright © 2002-2012 Acronis, Inc. All rights reserved. “Acronis” and the Acronis logo are trademarks of Acronis, Inc. Other mentioned names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners and should be regarded as such. Technical changes and differences from the illustrations are reserved; errors are excepted. 2012-02

For additional information about the Acronis DR Index 2012, please visit eu.acronisinfo.com.

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Documents

The Acronis Global Disaster Recovery Indexdocs.media.bitpipe.com/io_10x/io_102267/item_485929... · The Acronis Global Disaster Recovery (DR) Index 2012 is the industry’s largest