APAC businesses focusing on cloud computing as component of data protection

By eGovInnovation Editors | Jul 24, 2011

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Businesses are increasingly using cloud computing as a key component of their data protection plans, a new research done by CA Technologies showed.

While 95 percent of survey respondents said they have experienced application and data loss incidents last year, only a quarter have comprehensive disaster recovery plan in place. This is, however, changing as 42 percent said they believe that within the next year, cloud will play an important part of their disaster recovery and data protection strategies.

More than half of companies (57 percent) will focus investment on managing a hybrid cloud environment, where private clouds are supplemented with access to resources in public clouds.  One-third (33 percent) plan to invest in a public cloud as a backup solution and 31 percent will focus on better protection of their private cloud.

Some 1,086 companies were surveyed across Australia, China, India, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand.

"We're seeing lots of businesses use the cloud for offsite back-up and disaster recovery purposes and the survey indicates that many are now looking to a more sophisticated hybrid cloud model too," said Chris Ross, Vice President EMEA & Asia-Pacific, CA Technologies Data Management CSU. "This highlights the need for a solution that allows them to evolve their data protection strategy at their own pace – whether it be new on-premise technology, using cloud as backup medium or moving to a more complex hybrid cloud model."

However, despite the integration of cloud and the positive trend in data protection spending, companies are still vulnerable. Nearly all (95 percent) of the surveyed companies admitted they have experienced application and data loss incidents last year and the most common cause cited was IT systems failures such as network, storage, hardware or software failures.

This high level of data loss is reflected by the companies' apparent lack of readiness for these types of incidents.  Only a quarter (27 percent) are confident enough to say they have a full and comprehensive disaster recovery plan.  Meanwhile a high 90 percent run full testing of their disaster recovery plans at least once a year, a significant 38% don’t achieve their recovery time and recovery point objectives in these tests.

"Today, businesses of all sizes understand the repercussions of not having essential data always available - customers go unserved, SLAs are breached, suppliers cannot supply and staff morale and productivity degrades. However, the survey highlights that data protection strategies are still failing, leaving companies vulnerable - smarter investments are clearly needed," explained Ross.