Acronis Survey shows that Organisations Adopt Cloud for Secure Data Protection as Tape Failure Rates Reach 75%

Sydney and Woburn, MA – 23 January 2013 – According to a recent US survey from Acronis, conducted by Redmond Magazine, 60 percent of organisations recognise the dangers of maintaining just one form of backup, and are looking to the cloud to eliminate a single point of failure. In fact, nearly a quarter already back up to the cloud as a secure off-site solution.

It’s no surprise that organisations are seeking more secure data protection option, as 75 percent of survey respondents experienced tape failure in the last year, and 22 percent see phasing out of legacy backups as a future challenge. IT departments see the cloud as a highly beneficial off-site storage solution to resolve such issues, with 43 percent of survey respondents citing the extra layer of data protection as the primary benefit of cloud, while 24 percent were most attracted to the underlying cost savings.

Scott Crenshaw, Acronis senior vice president of strategy and CMO, commented, “It’s astounding that any organisation would be relying on a single point of failure when staging to cloud can provide the simple added layer of protection that organisations need. Old tape options are still used by many organisations despite the high failure rates, and it is fast losing its reputation as an effective technology, with tolerance for downtime reaching near-zero and the velocity of critical data is only increasing. Forward looking IT organisations should be thinking ‘cloud first’ when assessing effective recovery strategies.”

In order to avoid a single point of failure and ensure data protection, Acronis recommends organisations adopt a 3-2-1 backup strategy:

·         Keep three copies of data: one primary and two backups

·         Store backups on two types of media

·         Keep one copy of data off-site

The cloud clearly plays an essential role in the 3-2-1 strategy as a highly secure and cost-effective off-site storage solution, and cloud backup adoption is quickly gaining ground. Now, organisations must focus on integrating personal devices into their backup strategy to ensure availability, accessibility and protection of data, regardless of where it resides.

But, in order to develop a truly comprehensive data protection strategy, companies must also incorporate personal device backup and protection. Bring-your-own-device (BYOD) remains an obstacle for IT departments, and a quarter see personal device integration as their biggest backup and data recovery challenge. While the cloud is becoming an increasingly viable form of off-site backup, 65 percent of organisations admit to not backing up personal devices to the cloud.

“Protecting personal devices cannot be a grey area in a data protection strategy that is only tested and maintained for data on desktop or corporate laptops. Legacy backup and recovery policies simply won’t stretch to meet today’s always-on demands. CEOs are some of the biggest users of the personal iPad for business use – they need to be sure their data is safe.”

About Acronis

Acronis is leading the next wave of data availability, accessibility and protection solutions to simplify today’s complex IT environments. Acronis technology enables organisations of all sizes to manage the always-on anywhere data access demands of users, reducing risk against the loss of valuable corporate data, and controlling management and storage costs. With proven technology for data migration and disaster recovery for physical, virtual and cloud environments, and secure enterprise file-sharing and synchronisation regardless of type or platform, Acronis is enabling organisations to embrace new IT strategies and options such as BYOD and Mac in the enterprise. For additional information, please visit www.acronis.com. Follow Acronis on Twitter: http://twitter.com/acronis