New Enterprise Strategy Group Research Finds Cloud-based Data Protection Is the New Norm
However, many IT professionals still overestimate the data protection levels provided by SaaS solutions, leading to increased risk of data loss and compliance violations.
MILFORD, Mass., June 24, 2021 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG), a leading IT analyst, research, and strategy firm, and a division of TechTarget, Inc., today released new research examining how IT organizations utilize cloud services as part of their data protection strategy. Due to the broad adoption of public cloud services and applications, data owners are increasingly protecting the business-critical data residing in those cloud services with native or third-party solutions. As a result, cloud-based data protection is the new norm, with a majority of organizations surveyed now using cloud-resident solutions such as backup-as-a-service, disaster recovery-as-a-service, and cloud-based backup targets.
This new study, which surveyed of 381 IT professionals familiar with and/or responsible for their organization's data protection strategies, also found troubling indications that many users have the wrong impression of the data protection levels offered by public cloud infrastructure and software-as-a-service (SaaS) providers—leading to potential data loss and compliance risks.
Specifically, more than one-third of organizations still rely solely on SaaS vendors for data backup and recovery of those cloud applications. Since organizations are always responsible for their data and its recovery, ESG believes this way of thinking is a major mistake.
"We've been tracking this trend, which ESG calls 'the big SaaS/data protection disconnect,' since 2019, and it's extremely troubling that our latest research confirms the problem is not getting better," commented ESG Senior Analyst Christophe Bertrand. "IT managers need to assess their data protection strategies for cloud-resident applications and data, and technology vendors must increase market education and awareness efforts, or businesses will continue to risk the loss of business continuity and potentially even damaging regulatory fines."
Among the study's other key findings:
- The adoption of public cloud-based data protection services has grown significantly over the past five years, with more than two-thirds (69%) of organizations surveyed currently using backup-as-a-service (BaaS) solutions, up from 39% in 2016.
- Organizations are placing stringent recovery point objective (RPO) requirements on their backup-as-a-service vendors, with more than one in five expecting continuous data protection-like capabilities.
- Cost-effectiveness (cited by 27% of respondents), as well as advanced security features (25%), top the list of key capabilities that customers believe cloud backup and disaster recovery target solutions must offer while operating at scale.
- Organizations expect in-cloud solutions to provide granular restores (21%), tiered storage (20%), and the ability to deliver against service levels and support newer technology deployments, such as those based on container technology (19%).
This data is all suggestive of a market creating enormous potential for new vendor offerings, with additional ESG research finding the space is undergoing a fundamental shift away from traditional backup and recovery due to the emergence of more autonomous AI-based solutions. These features facilitate a broader adoption of what ESG calls intelligent data management, in which data is better understood and reused for other technical or business purposes.
For more information on this new ESG Research Report, The Evolution of Data Protection Cloud Strategies, please visit ESG's website.
About ESG
Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) is an integrated technology analysis, research, and strategy firm providing market intelligence, actionable insight, and go-to-market content services to the global technology community. It is increasingly recognized as one of the world's leading analyst firms in helping technology vendors make strategic decisions across their go-to-market programs through factual, peer-based research. ESG is a division of TechTarget, Inc. (Nasdaq: TTGT), the global leader in purchase intent-driven marketing and sales services focused on delivering business impact for enterprise technology companies.
Media Contact
Lauren Childers, ESG, 5084046375, [email protected]
SOURCE Enterprise Strategy Group
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