Companies admit not being ready for cloud computing

Only 13% reach maturity in their data protection strategy. Annually, an organization loses on average 2.3 terabytes of information, the EMC study shows.

Although data loss has increased by around 400% since 2012, companies recognize that they are not yet ready to safeguard their information in the era of mobile technology, hybrid cloud and big data.

And is that 51% of them lack a disaster recovery plan, while only 6% do. In fact, 62% consider that big data, mobile technology and hybrid cloud are "difficult" to protect.

These are some conclusions of the survey: "EMC global data protection index", prepared by Vanson Bourne.

The report states that each year a firm loses on average 2.3 terabytes of data, which is equivalent to about 24 million emails. That generates a cost of one million dollars.

Compared to the last twelve months, 64% of companies worldwide claim to have suffered data loss or unforeseen downtime. The most affected come from the telecommunications sector and the banking sector.

Among the consequences of these interruptions are the loss of income (36%) and the loss of a new business opportunity (20%) (see graph).

Also, the study details that organizations that have three or more data protection providers lose more information, to the point of exceeding the global average (3.5 terabytes).

"Companies have to think that their protection strategies will allow them to restore their data, if they store their files on tapes, obviously they will not be able to do a 'restore'," Enrique Forbes, EMC Latin America executive.

Leaders vs. lagging While 64% of companies worldwide consider it "totally fundamental" to protect their data to guarantee its success, 87% of them still do not reach the due maturity in terms of information protection.

This means that these organizations doubt and / or distrust their capacity for restoration and even store their files on tapes. The EMC study qualifies these companies as "evaluators" and "laggards" for being behind the maturity curve in their data protection strategy.

At the other extreme, the report places in the category of "leaders" and "new users" those firms that make strenuous efforts to protect their information. However, these make up a minority globally and barely exceed 13% (see graph).

Suppliers The report also mentions that most firms have more than one provider in data protection. Sectors such as telecommunications, entertainment and the media are the ones that most bet on this alternative.

But this is a double-edged sword. Businesses that use 3 or more providers spend a higher amount of their IT budget on this matter; In parallel, about a third have already experienced data loss.

"Because there are several providers in terms of database protection, information silos are usually formed where each is managed independently and the limits are diffuse," Forbes said, not without first clarifying that in "silos strategies, nobody owns those gray areas. "

OtherI say Tactics in data protection Data centers. Enrique Forbes, executive of EMC Latin America, suggested that medium and large companies can bet to follow active-active strategies. That means they have two data centers that work continuously. Thus, in case of loss of data in one, the operation can follow automatically in the other without any interruption.

In shortThe businesses located in China and Hong Kong are the ones that are most likely to be ahead of the curve. Outside of Asia, figure the United States and the Netherlands.