research report · research report abstract: 2015 trends in data protection modernization by jason...

Research Report

Abstract: 2015 Trends in Data Protection Modernization

By Jason Buffington, Senior Analyst and Bill Lundell, Senior Research Analyst

With Jennifer Gahm, Senior Project Manager

September 2015

© 2015 by The Enterprise Strategy Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Research Report: 2015 Trends in Data Protection Modernization


Introduction

Research Objectives

Because ESG consistently sees improving data backup and recovery as one of the top IT priorities in its annual spending intentions survey (including 2015’s iteration) year after year, this research was intended to examine the parts of data protection that organizations are investing in and why.1 ESG surveyed 375 IT professionals responsible for and/or familiar with their organization’s data protection infrastructure, processes, and strategy, representing midmarket organizations (defined as organizations with 100 to 999 employees) and enterprise-class (defined as organizations with 1,000 employees or more) organizations in North America. All respondents were required to have purchase decision authority or influence.

The survey was designed to answer the following questions:

What are the trends in data protection software tools: unified/workload-specific, backup-alone, or comprehensive data protection that also includes snapshots, replication, etc.?

What is the sentiment towards existing backup tools, what is affecting that sentiment for future data protection implementations, and why?

Which types of data protection technologies and processes are currently in use? How will this change going forward?

What types of storage media are currently used to support data protection requirements? How will this change over time?

What impact is the cloud having on data protection strategies today? How will this change in the near future?

What are the top data protection challenges as seen by IT implementers and how do those align with the mandates given by IT leadership in regard to data protection?

How big is the copy data management problem and what are the perceived benefits of CDM solutions?

What are the specific considerations for protecting virtualized environments?

What methods do organizations use to protect virtual machines today?

Do organizations maintain different approaches to protecting their virtual and physical servers? What is the preference for protecting physical versus virtual?

What are the top-line policies and preferences related to endpoint data protection?

Survey participants represented a wide range of industries including financial services, manufacturing, business services, communications and media, and government. For more details, please see the Research Methodology and Respondent Demographics sections of this report.

1 Source: ESG Research Report, 2015 IT Spending Intentions Survey, February 2015.

http://www.esg-global.com/research-reports/2015-it-spending-intentions-survey/



Research Methodology

To gather data for this report, ESG conducted a comprehensive online survey of IT professionals from private- and public-sector organizations in North America (United States and Canada) between March 18, 2015 and April 3, 2015. To qualify for this survey, respondents were required to be IT professionals responsible for data protection technology decisions for their organization. All respondents were provided an incentive to complete the survey in the form of cash awards and/or cash equivalents.

After filtering out unqualified respondents, removing duplicate responses, and screening the remaining completed responses (on a number of criteria) for data integrity, we were left with a final total sample of 375 IT professionals.

Please see the Respondent Demographics section of this report for more information on these respondents.

Note: Totals in figures and tables throughout this report may not add up to 100% due to rounding.



Respondent Demographics

The data presented in this report is based on a survey of 375 qualified respondents. Figures 17-23 detail the demographics of the respondent base, including individual respondents’ current job responsibility and knowledge of/familiarity with their organization’s data protection environment, as well as respondent organizations’ total number of employees, primary industry, number of production servers, and annual data growth rate.

Respondents by Job Responsibility

Respondents’ current job responsibility is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Survey Respondents, by Job Responsibility

Source: Enterprise Strategy Group, 2015.

Respondents by Number of Employees

The number of employees in respondents’ organizations is shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Survey Respondents, by Number of Employees


Senior IT management (e.g.,

CIO, VP of IT, Director of IT, etc.), 77%

IT staff (e.g., storage administrator,

systems administrator, etc.),

23%

Which of the following best describes your current role within your organization? (Percent of respondents, N=375)

250 to 499, 19%

500 to 999, 28%

1,000 to 2,499, 19%

2,500 to 4,999, 15%

5,000 to 9,999, 6%

10,000 to 19,999, 10%

20,000 or more, 3%

How many total employees does your organization have worldwide? (Percent of respondents, N=375)



Respondents by Industry

Respondents were asked to identify their organization’s primary industry. In total, ESG received completed, qualified respondents from individuals in 19 distinct vertical industries, plus an “Other” category. Respondents were then grouped into the broader categories shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3. Survey Respondents, by Industry


Respondents by Annual Revenue

Respondent organizations’ annual revenue is shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4. Survey Respondents, by Annual Revenue


Financial (banking, securities, insurance),

19%

Manufacturing, 18%

Business Services (accounting,

consulting, legal, etc.), 11%

Health Care, 10%

Retail/Wholesale, 10%

Communications & Media, 9%

Government (Federal/National, State/Local), 4%

Other, 20%

What is your organization’s primary industry? (Percent of respondents, N=375)

8%

16%

19%

14%16%

12%

6% 6%

3%

0%

2%

4%

6%

8%

10%

12%

14%

16%

18%

20%

Less than$50 million

$50 millionto $99.999

million

$100million to$499.999

million

$500million to$999.999

million

$1 billion to$4.999billion

$5 billion to$9.999billion

$10 billionto $19.999

billion

$20 billionor more

Notapplicable

(e.g., publicsector,

non-profit)

What is your organization’s approximate total annual revenue ($US)? (Percent of respondents, N=374)



Respondents by Number of Production Servers

The number of production servers operated worldwide by respondents’ IT organizations is shown in Figure 5.

Figure 5. Survey Respondents, by Number of Production Servers


Respondents by Total Volume of Data Stored on Servers and Storage

The approximate total volume of data stored on respondent organizations’ corporate servers and storage systems is shown in Figure 6.

Figure 6. Survey Respondents, by Total Volume of Data Stored on Servers and Storage


7%

16%17%

19%

14%15%

5%

3% 3%

0%

12%13% 13%

14% 14%13%

9%

7%

3%

1%

0%

2%

4%

6%

8%

10%

12%

14%

16%

18%

20%

Less than25

25 to 49 50 to 100 101 to 250251 to 500 501 to1,000

1,001 to2,500

2,501 to5,000

More than5,000

Don'tknow

Approximately how many production servers – both physical and virtual – are supported worldwide by your IT organization? (Percent of respondents, N=375)

Total physical production servers Total production virtual machines

1%

3%

8%

15%16%

14%

18%

11%

8%

5%

0%

2%

4%

6%

8%

10%

12%

14%

16%

18%

20%

Less than1 TB

1 TB – 5 TB

6 TB – 10 TB

11 TB – 25 TB

26 TB – 50 TB

51 TB –100 TB

101 TB –250 TB

251 TB –500 TB

501 TB –999 TB

1 PB ormore

To the best of your knowledge, what is your immediate organization’s approximate total volume of data stored on corporate servers and storage systems? (Percent of

respondents, N=331)



Respondents by Annual Data Growth Rate

The approximate annual data growth rate for respondent organizations is shown in Figure 7.

Figure 7. Survey Respondents, Approximate Annual Data Growth Rate


8%

26%

17%15%

10%

7%6%

5%

2% 2%0%

1%

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

1% to10%

annually

11% to20%

annually

21% to30%

annually

31% to40%

annually

41% to50%

annually

51% to60%

annually

61% to70%

annually

71% to80%

annually

81% to90%

annually

91% to100%

annually

Morethan100%

annually

Don’t know

At approximately what rate do you believe your organization’s total volume of data is growing annually? (Percent of respondents, N=375)



Contents

List of Figures ................................................................................................................................................ 3

List of Tables ................................................................................................................................................. 3

Executive Summary ...................................................................................................................................... 4 Report Conclusions ................................................................................................................................................. 4

Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 5 Research Objectives ............................................................................................................................................... 5

Research Findings ......................................................................................................................................... 6 Status Quo and Sentiments of Primary Backup Solution ........................................................................................ 6 Hybrid Trends in Backup Media ............................................................................................................................ 12 Data Protection Challenges and Mandates .......................................................................................................... 14 The Copy Data Management Opportunity ........................................................................................................... 16 Endpoint Protection Processes and Methods ....................................................................................................... 17

Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................... 19

Research Implications for Data Protection Vendors ............................................................................................. 19 Research Implications for IT and Data Protection Professionals .......................................................................... 19

Research Methodology ............................................................................................................................... 21

Respondent Demographics......................................................................................................................... 22 Respondents by Job Responsibility ....................................................................................................................... 22 Respondents by Number of Employees................................................................................................................ 22 Respondents by Industry ...................................................................................................................................... 23 Respondents by Annual Revenue ......................................................................................................................... 23 Respondents by Number of Production Servers................................................................................................... 24 Respondents by Total Volume of Data Stored on Servers and Storage ................................................................ 24 Respondents by Annual Data Growth Rate .......................................................................................................... 25



List of Figures Figure 1. How Organizations Would Re-architect the Primary Backup Solution and Processes ................................ 6 Figure 2. Considerations for Selecting a New Backup Vendor/Solution to Replace Current Vendor/Solution .......... 7 Figure 3. Length of Time Primary Backup Application Has Been Deployed ............................................................... 8 Figure 4. Number of Unique Backup Applications in Use, Today and 24 Months from Now .................................... 9 Figure 5. Number of Unique Backup Applications, 2012-2017.................................................................................. 9 Figure 6. Strategy for Backing Up Virtual and Physical Servers ............................................................................... 10 Figure 7. Strategy for Backing up Virtual and Physical Servers, 2013 vs. 2015 vs. 2017 .......................................... 11 Figure 8. Primary Data Backup Process ................................................................................................................... 12 Figure 9. Average and Maximum Data Retention Requirements ............................................................................ 13 Figure 10. Data Protection Challenges .................................................................................................................... 14 Figure 11. Data Protection Mandates from IT Leadership ...................................................................................... 15 Figure 12. Number of Copies of Production Data Created for Backup .................................................................... 16 Figure 13. Copy Data Management Capabilities ..................................................................................................... 16 Figure 14. Formal Processes for Protecting End-user Endpoint Devices ................................................................. 17 Figure 15. Solutions/Methods Used to Protect Endpoint Devices .......................................................................... 18 Figure 16. Expected Endpoint Backup Solutions and Methods Going Forward ...................................................... 18 Figure 17. Survey Respondents, by Job Responsibility ............................................................................................ 22 Figure 18. Survey Respondents, by Number of Employees ..................................................................................... 22 Figure 19. Survey Respondents, by Industry ........................................................................................................... 23 Figure 20. Survey Respondents, by Annual Revenue .............................................................................................. 23 Figure 21. Survey Respondents, by Number of Production Servers ........................................................................ 24 Figure 22. Survey Respondents, by Total Volume of Data Stored on Servers and Storage ..................................... 24 Figure 23. Survey Respondents, Approximate Annual Data Growth Rate ............................................................... 25

List of Tables Table 1. The Increasing Usage of Cloud Services as Part of the Data Backup Process ............................................. 13

All trademark names are property of their respective companies. Information contained in this publication has been obtained by sources The Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) considers to be reliable but is not warranted by ESG. This publication may contain opinions of ESG, which are subject to change from time to time. This publication is copyrighted by The Enterprise Strategy Group, Inc. Any reproduction or redistribution of this publication, in whole or in part, whether in hard-copy format, electronically, or otherwise to persons not authorized to receive it, without the express consent of The Enterprise Strategy Group, Inc., is in violation of U.S. copyright law and will be subject to an action for civil damages and, if applicable, criminal prosecution. Should you have any questions, please contact ESG Client Relations at 508.482.0188.

20 Asylum Street | Milford, MA 01757 | Tel: 508.482.0188 Fax: 508.482.0128 | www.esg-global.com

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