According to a global survey conducted by data recovery vendor Kroll Ontrack, data loss and data recovery aren’t top of mind for all IT organizations implementing a cloud computing or virtualization deployment.
Conducted at VMware Forums globally, 367 IT professionals participated in the in-person survey, with 51 per cent representing enterprises and 32 per cent being service providers.
The survey found that while 62 per cent of respondents are leveraging the cloud and/or virtualization, only 33 per cent of these organizations test data recovery plans regularly to ensure proper protocols are in place to protect this data.
Some 49 per cent of organizations reported experiencing some type of data loss in the last year, but not necessarily from the cloud. For 55 per cent the data was lost from a traditional storage device, while 26 per cent reported a data loss from a virtual environment, three per cent reported a loss from the cloud and 16 per cent experienced data loss from both a virtual environment as well as the cloud.
“It’s clear that the cloud is quickly gaining ground among organizations looking to streamline their technology infrastructure and cut information technology (IT) costs, as 26 per cent of respondents reported leveraging infrastructure as a service, 16 per cent reported leveraging Software as a Service and 13 per cent reported utilizing both IaaS and SaaS” said Abhik Mitra, data recovery product manager, Kroll Ontrack, in a statement. “However, if there is anything that technology has taught us, it is that data loss can occur in any environment, regardless of the specific technology. The key to minimizing a data loss risk and successfully recovering from a loss is asking the right questions prior to adopting a new storage medium and amending your policies and procedures accordingly.”
When asked about their cloud provider’s ability to properly handle data loss incidents, only 29 per cent revealed a lack of confidence, compared to 55 per cent of respondents in 2011. However, just 17 per cent of respondents revealed that they test their data recovery plan regularly to validate technical and personnel readiness against cloud or virtual data loss technical recovery capabilities and 13 per cent responded that they do not have a data recovery plan.