Recent natural disasters have resulted in more North American companies replicating or backing up their data: Gartner

In the wake of recent major disasters such as Hurricane Katrina, companies have learned that backing up or replicating data may be the key to keeping their business running, according to a survey by Gartner, Inc. In a survey of North American IT managers, 45 percent of those surveyed reported backing up or replicating data to another disk, up dramatically from just 6 percent in 2004. Although more companies are backing up data, 70 percent of respondents back up to a local device, leaving their backup data vulnerable to a local catastrophe.

"Backing up data to a local device means that any catastrophic event that destroyed a company's primary server would likely destroy the backup media as well," said Adam W. Couture, principal research analyst for Gartner. "Companies hoping to protect their data for the long haul must look at using remote backup and recovery service providers."

In September 2005, Gartner surveyed 104 IT managers in North America regarding their current and intended use of storage hardware and software support, implementation services, consulting and managed storage services. The research targeted companies with established IT environments that used external service providers (ESPs) for one or more storage service.

With storage security a big concern among companies, especially in the wake of the many lost and stolen data incidents in 2005, 55 percent of respondents said they encrypt all of their backup files. A total of 50 percent said they will review internal policies regarding who can and cannot access backup data.

"By gaining access to personal information, such as birth dates, account numbers and social security numbers, identity thieves can open credit accounts and transfer funds by assuming the identities of their victims," Mr. Couture said. "As a consequence, storage original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and independent software vendors (ISVs) must review, revise and re-launch current storage security offerings and plan new ones."

The possibility of service provider culpability is also a top-of-mind concern for many respondents, with 40 percent saying they will review the security policies and procedures of their physical tape archiving service providers and another one-third considering switching to another service provider.

The physical loss of tapes can be largely attributed to the fact that physical transportation of the tapes involves many "hands" moving the tapes from their silo slots to bins to transport trucks to physical archive location, to their storage slots and back again. Gartner analysts said that eliminating all of these touch points also eliminates the possibility of human error or theft. A total of 35 percent of those surveyed said they will switch to network-based backups and another 20 percent claimed they will move to disk-to-disk-based storage.

"For most service providers, these results represent a very large opportunity for a number of services. Most end users will consider employing an ESP to review their security policies and procedures regarding backup and tape," Mr. Couture said. "However, a strong opportunity exists to link security and storage services into more comprehensive offerings spanning audits, architectures, implementations and even managed services."

•Date: 2nd Dec 2005 • Region: US • Type: Article •Topic: IT continuity
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