Organizations on average are managing almost 40 percent more data than they were a year ago according to new research from Dell Technologies and this surge in data comes with inherent challenges.
To compile its new Global Data Protection Index 2020 Snapshot, the company surveyed 1,000 IT decision makers at public and private organizations with 250+ employees from 15 different countries to learn more about how these challenges impact their data protection readiness.
The findings from Dell's survey show that an increasing number of organizations (80% in 2019 up from 74% in 2018) now see the value in their data. President of Dell Technologies Data Protection Beth Phalen explained why data protection strategies will be essential to businesses in the next data decade in a press release, saying:
- Dell: Data can be the key for digital transformation in 2020
- 'Dark data' is costing businesses vast sums
- Kaspersky says assault on customer data is inevitable
“Data is the lifeblood of business and the key to an organization’s digital transformation. As we enter the next data decade, resilient, reliable and modern data protection strategies are essential in helping businesses make smarter, faster decisions and combat the effects of costly disruptions. These findings prove that data protection needs to be central to a company’s business strategy. As the data landscape grows more complex, organizations need nimble, sustainable data protection strategies that can scale in a multi-platform, multi-cloud world.”
With more data comes increased disruptions
According to Dell's study, organizations are now managing 13.53PB of data which marks a nearly 40 percent increase from 2018 when the average was 9.70PB and an 831 percent increase since organizations were managing 1.45PB of data in 2016.
Cyberattacks, data loss and system downtime are the largest threats to all of this data and the majority of organizations (82%) suffered a disruptive event during the course of the last 12 months. Additionally, 68 percent of organizations fear they will experience a disruptive event in the next 12 months.
The study also found that organizations which are using more than one data protection vendor are approximately two times more vulnerable to a cyber incident that prevents access to their data. However, the use of multiple data protection solutions is on the rise with 80 percent of organizations choosing to deploy solutions from two or more providers.
The cost of disruption is also increasing and the average cost of downtime surged by 54 percent from 2018 to 2019, resulting in an estimated loss of $819k in 2019. These costs are also significantly higher for organizations using more than one data protection vendor.
While disruption can have serious negative effects for any business, the likelihood that organizations will suffer data loss, system downtime and cyberattacks will likely only increase as companies continue to manage even more data.
- We've also highlighted the best data loss prevention services
