Ready to Go! Survey Shows Businesses Paying Attention to Data Protection

As a global leader in hybrid cloud data protection and storage, Acronis is always developing or enhancing solutions designed to solve the challenges that businesses face, both today and in the future. So we asked IT Central Station to conduct a survey of North American businesses as a pulse-check on the attitudes and practices of IT professionals, system engineers, project managers and business owners regarding the backup services they require.

We were pleased to know that the findings show companies of all sizes are actively paying attention to their data protection, with many lacing up to face the challenges of today’s complex IT environment.

In addition, they are overwhelmingly looking for a backup solution that can meet the demands of a complex IT environment (93 percent of those surveyed).

You may already know that complex environments require unique support. With huge amounts of data being generated by the minute, IT professionals are constantly at work to make sure that diverse systems, which exist both on-site and off-premises, work seamlessly to keep businesses running. Should systems go down, the costs can be huge: The Rand Group reports that 98 percent of businesses put the cost of downtime at $100,000 per hour.

Backup is essential so that data volumes – no matter how granular or large – can be restored and companies can get back to business as usual.

When you’re out sick, it can be painful to get back to work. But businesses can’t simply ease back into operations following a data loss episode. Respondents said backup software must make recovery quick (68 percent of respondents) and easy (70 percent) – and systems should be as good as new once they are recovered, with 91 percent of respondents saying reliability is essential.

Just as data is growing at a rapid-fire pace, the way cybercriminals target businesses is exploding as well. Zero-day attacks, in which ransomware targets a previously unknown software vulnerability, are happening with greater frequency.

While traditional anti-virus solutions provides a line of defense against known ransomware, they are less effective against zero-day attacks. To protect themselves from such innovative attacks, businesses need defenses that are just as innovative and adaptive.

Good news: Acronis Active Protection, which monitors systems in real-time using behavior-based heuristics, is designed to defend against these attacks. And since it is an integrated feature of Acronis Backup, impacted files can be immediately restored – making it the precise solution businesses need based on the findings of IT Central Station’s survey.

IT Central Station’s survey reported a range of expenditures on backup solutions, which is expected since there are varying needs based on company size, industry, and compliance requirements. But it is clear that companies are taking the threat seriously, and are investing in solutions that mitigate those threats and ensure the continuity of their operations.

Data drives the bottom line of today’s business world, which is why companies need fast, reliable backup in order to survive. The findings of IT Central Station’s survey reveal that companies require a solution that’s easy-to-use, yet sophisticated enough to cope with an IT landscape that’s experiencing ever-changing needs and threats.

The kind of secure hybrid cloud backup delivered by Acronis Backup with cloud storage is an ideal solution for today’s environment – keeping data out of harm's way, while ensuring you have easy access to it. Any company looking to adopt a secure hybrid cloud backup solution should try it for 30 days for free.