Canadian companies above global average but concerned about having adequate data protection infrastructure
TORONTO, Ontario – March 21, 2019
News Summary:
- Canadian businesses managed 11.45PB of data in 2018, higher than the global average of 9.70PB and representing an explosive growth of 941% compared to the 1.10PB managed in 2016.
- 97% of Canadian businesses see the potential value of data, with 33% already monetizing it, while globally the average is 92% of businesses with 36% already monetizing it.
- Of those surveyed, 72% of Canadian businesses experienced a disruption in the last 12 months, and 16% percent experienced irreparable data loss, while globally 76% experienced disruption in the last 12 months with 27% experiencing irreparable data loss.
- More than a third (34%) of Canadian respondents are very confident that their data protection infrastructure is compliant with existing regulations, 1% shy of the global average. However, only 11% believe their data protection solutions will meet all future challenges, lower than the global average of 16%.
- Nearly half (44%) of those surveyed are struggling to find suitable data protection solutions for newer technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning, while globally the average is 45%.
Full Story:
Dell EMC announces the results of the third Global Data Protection Index revealing an explosive growth rate of data of 569% and an impressive jump in data protection “adopters” of nearly 50% since 2016 worldwide. The research, which surveyed 2,200 IT decision makers from both public and private organizations with 250+ employees across 18 countries and 11 industries, provides a comprehensive understanding of the state of data protection and the maturity of data protection strategies. Specifically, the Index uncovered an increase in the average amount of data managed – from 1.45 petabytes (PB) in 2016 to 9.70PB in 2018 – and a high awareness of the value of data. In fact, in Canada, 97% of respondents see the potential value of data and 33% are already monetizing their data. While this acknowledgement is positive, most respondents are struggling to properly protect their data. The combination of these factors is driving many of the survey’s findings.
Disruption Incidents Are Costly
The sheer volume of data and its importance to business operations make data protection that much more challenging. Disruption incidents are occurring frequently, but more alarming is the increasing amount of irreversible data loss. More than three-quarters (76%) of respondents globally experienced some type of disruption within a 12-month period, and 27% were unable to recover data using their existing data protection solution. While in Canada, 72% of businesses experienced a disruption in the last 12 months, and 16% percent experienced irreparable data loss.
Coincidently, 76% of respondents worldwide are also using at least two data protection vendors, which makes them 35% more likely to experience some type of disruption during the same 12-month period, compared to those with a single vendor. Canada is below average, experiencing less disruption with only 71% of businesses using two or more data protection vendors and making them 41% more likely to experience some type of disruption during a 12-month period. Unplanned systems downtime was the most common type of disruption for Canadian businesses (54%) using two or more vendors, followed by ransomware attack that prevented access to data (17%) and data loss (39%).
Although unplanned systems downtime is more prevalent, data loss is far more expensive. For example, those in Canada who encountered downtime experienced 25 hours of downtime compared to the global average of 20 hours in the last 12 months, costing Canadians approximately $584,615 while those who lost data, lost 6.15 terabytes on average with a price tag of nearly $1.2 million. Additionally, many of those who experienced a disruption also indicated it had far-reaching business impacts from customer trust to brand equity to employee productivity, to name a few.
Not only does the amount of data lost increase the price, but so does the value of data itself. It’s clear that Canadian organizations recognize this as 73% said they take data protection more seriously for categories of data that have the greatest monetary value.
Challenges Surrounding Data Protection
While those classified as data protection “adopters” sprang forward by 61%, 11% higher than the global average, and “leaders” increased 9% (just 1% shy of the global average), many Canadian businesses are still struggling to implement a solution that adequately suits their needs. The majority (88%) of Canadian respondents face at least one challenge in relation to data protection. The top three challenges Canadian business face include:
- The lack of data protection solutions for emerging technologies (ranked 2nd globally)
- Ensuring compliancy with regulations like GDPR (ranked 3rd globally)
- Ballooning costs of storing and managing backup copies due to rapid data growth ranked first at (ranked 1st globally)
For those who are struggling to find adequate data protection solutions for newer technologies, nearly half of Canadian businesses said they could not find suitable data protection solutions for artificial intelligence and machine learning data, which is just below the global average of 51%. While cloud-native applications and IoT appear to be more of a struggle to protect for Canadian businesses, representing 61% and 25% compared to 47% and 40% globally.
The challenges presented by emerging technologies and the rapid growth of data are just beginning to take shape. As such, only 11% of Canadian businesses, compared to 16% globally, believe their current data protection solutions will be able to meet all future business challenges.
Cloud Is Changing the Data Protection Landscape
According to the Global Data Protection Index, public cloud use has increased from 28% of the total IT environment in respondents’ organizations in 2016 to 40% in 2018, on average. Nearly all (98%) organizations using public cloud are also leveraging it as part of their data protection infrastructure, including Canada at 97%.
The top use cases in Canada for data protection within public cloud include:
- Cloud-enabled versions of on-premises data protection software to protect public cloud workloads (ranked 4th globally)
- Protecting specific SaaS apps (ranked 3rd globally)
- Backup of on-premises workloads/data (ranked 2nd globally)
- Long term retention (not ranked in the top 5 globally)
- Archiving (not ranked in the top 5 globally)
When considering data protection solutions in a public cloud environment, the growing data universe plays an especially critical role as indicated by 65% of Canadian respondents who named scalability options as important. Specifically, 39% cited the impact of data protection infrastructure or services required to protect at scale, while 42% cited the ability to scale services as public cloud workloads increase.
Regulation Is an Impending Catalyst for Evolution
Data privacy regulations like the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) are relatively new, and the true impact on the data industry has yet to be realized. However, it has quickly become a focal point as regulation compliance was ranked in the top three data protection challenges worldwide, including in Canada where it was ranked 2nd.
Moreover, 34% of Canadian businesses feel confident that their organization’s current data protection infrastructure and processes are compliant with regional regulations. This stat is likely to rise as Canadian businesses continue to recognize the value of data, which 97% already do. That sentiment is also beginning to translate into reality as 5% of Canadian respondents whose organization experienced data loss or unplanned downtime in the past 12 months reported paying punitive fines as a result.
Supporting Quotes
“Emerging technologies such as AI and IoT are frequently the focus of an organization’s digital transformation, but the data those technologies generate is absolutely key in their transformation journey,” said Beth Phalen, president and general manager, Dell EMC Data Protection Division. “The nearly 50% growth of data protection adopters and fact that the majority of business now recognize the value of data proves that we are on a positive path to protecting and harnessing the data that drives human progress.”
“The banking industry has changed significantly over the past decade,” said Bob Bender, CTO, Founders Federal Credit Union. “Prior to digital transformation, the physical currency in a bank’s vault was its most valuable asset. Today, data is equally valuable, and it requires layers of robust protection – from backup and recovery to cyber resilience and compliancy. Having one partner we can trust with every kilobyte of data is absolutely priceless for both us and our customers.”
Additional Resources
- For a detailed view of the Global Data Protection Index, including global and regional infographics, please visit www.dellemc.com/gdpi.
- Read the blog from Dell EMC Data Protection Division CTO Arthur Lent examining the Global Data Protection Index findings.
About the Dell EMC Global Data Protection Index
Dell EMC commissioned Vanson Bourne for the third Global Data Protection Index, surveying 2,200 IT decision makers from both public and private companies with 250+ employees across 11 industries and 18 countries about the maturity of their data protection strategies. Vanson Bourne conducted the survey between September and November 2018. The countries surveyed include US, UK, France and Germany with 200 respondents each, and Canada, Mexico, Brazil, South Africa, UAE, Italy, Switzerland, Netherlands, Australia, Japan, China, South Korea, India and Singapore with 100 respondents each.
About Dell Technologies
Dell Technologies is a unique family of businesses that provide the essential infrastructure for organizations to build their digital future, transform IT and protect their most important asset, information. The company services customers of all sizes across 180 countries – ranging from 99 percent of the Fortune 500 to individual consumers – with the industry’s most comprehensive and innovative portfolio from the edge to the core to the cloud.
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