Confusion between archiving and backup exists in many UK companies Archiving is by no means done universally: 28 percent do not archive data at all. Of those that do, 67 percent use manual processes and only 25 percent take an automated approach. The remainder use a hybrid system. Despite the fact that 72 percent of people claim to archive, 54 percent of respondents still declare that at least 20 percent of their server-based storage comprises unstructured user data, with 15 percent of the respondents suggesting a figure in excess of 50 percent. Sixty six percent of respondents report that on average at least 20 percent of their primary storage is e-mail - including pre-archived material such as Microsoft Outlook’s .pst archive files. “Given these figures, you have to question the effectiveness of the archiving techniques in use, where they are in use,” said Tony Cotterill, CEO of BridgeHead Software, which commissioned the survey. “It’s inconceivable that such a volume of email and other one-off files need to stay on primary storage to the extent that it occupies such a high proportion of space.” The extent to which archiving is failing or is not being done at all is underlined by the fact that 15 percent of respondents don’t know how long it would take them to retrieve a lost file. “This suggests that some people are confusing backup and archiving,” continued Tony Cotterill. “Archiving involves indexing content such that it can be retrieved easily at a later time using a keyword search. Anything else is just backup, and ineffectual backup at that.” Two percent of respondents admit that they didn’t think they’d ever be able to retrieve a lost file. However, there appears to be some appetite for getting to grips with archiving. Areas of interest cited for the coming twelve months include e-mail archiving (49 percent) and file archiving (43 percent), which hold their own alongside disaster recovery (54 percent) and backup (48 percent) – although the similarities in the figures could also be due to the lack of distinction that appears to be made between these various services. Tape remains – for the time being – king of archive media. Seventy three percent of respondents employ tape-based media although, at 48 percent, disk must be closing the gap rapidly. WORM media is reported by 22 percent of respondents. Thirty three percent of respondents report more than 1 TB of archived data, with 4 percent claiming more than 15 TB. Despite these results, still sixty three percent of those surveyed would claim to have a file archive software solution, 56 percent an e-mail archive software solution. It is clear that what the industry would describe as an adequate archiving system and what is generally implemented are two very different things. The Information Lifecycle Management (ILM) Audit survey was conducted by BridgeHead Software during July 2005. Over 300 IT managers and directors from medium to large organisations in the UK took part.
•Date: 25th August 2005 • Region: UK • Type:
Article •Topic: IT continuity |
