Survey shows Cloud Backup makes 62% of businesses nervous.

At Highly Reliable Systems we embrace cloud backup as a great alternative or adjunct to having physical removable drives.  With removable drives and box to box replication our clients may choose to avoid cloud backup to public data centers altogether. According to CloudBerry and a recent survey published on storagenewsletter.com enterprises continue to be concerned about  security in the cloud.  The  eye opening results including that 62% of respondents are concerned about data in the cloud.

Key findings from the survey as published at storagenews.com include:

cloud backup can be supplemented or replaced with removable drives or box to box replication

Box to Box replication may avoid cloud backup concerns

  • Almost half of respondents (49%) have only one copy of their business data, which could cause a complete operational disruption in the event that data becomes inaccessible.
  • Approximately 36% of enterprises backup their business data completely. While this finding is encouraging, it is offset by the fact that an equal amount (36%) do no backups at all.
  • Approximately 27% of respondents reported they have lost business data “several times,” up to “many times.”
  • Nearly 42% of respondents rely on automation for backup, showing they are advancing their strategies to require minimal human intervention. However, this good news is tempered by the fact that an equal number of respondents backup only “from time to time,” sometimes as infrequently as once a week.
  • Approximately 44% of enterprises continue to rely on external drives (such as tape) for backup, far more than the cloud (26%). This is in spite of the inherent shortcomings of tape-based methods, including security risks resulting from theft, loss and other human error.
  • Ironically, an overwhelming majority of respondents (approximately 62%) cited security concerns as their biggest concern regarding cloud-based backup. Other concerns with using the cloud for backup include the work/cost associated with the initial data seed; fear of vendor lock-in; lack of interoperability with existing storage solutions and possible productivity drains.
  • While 55% of respondents reported being “very satisfied” or “almost satisfied” with their backup processes, 36% reported simply, “it works.” These organizations are likely not examining and evaluating their backup needs periodically, and making appropriate changes.