Woburn, Mass., December 9, 2010 - Acronis, a leading provider of easy-to-use backup, recovery
and security solutions for physical, virtual and cloud
environments, is today releasing research which unveils that
consumers are generally aware of the need for backup and recovery,
even if they are not carrying it out regularly enough.
When surveyed, 83 percent of consumers stated that they
understand the need to back up, indicating that awareness of the
technology is increasing and is catching up with other more
established consumer technologies such as antivirus software.
However, despite the awareness of the technology much of the
data on PCs and laptops is not being protected. Almost a third (29
percent) of consumers do not back up the files, photos and music on
their machines at all, while a quarter (25 percent) state that they
only back up when they remember. In fact, only 15 percent back up
on a regular basis (once a week or more).
The research revealed that people are well-educated about backup
and recovery, with only a small minority of consumers stating that
they do not back up because they do not think that their data is at
risk or because they are ignorant about the subject matter. Apathy
is the main barrier with almost half of consumers (48 percent)
stating that they know they should back up but they do not do it or
do not do it correctly.
While consumer attitudes to backup and recovery may be
complacent, the survey indicates that people do fear the prospect
of losing all their data and the consequences of not backing up.
For instance, 62 percent of consumers fear the prospect of their PC
or laptop crashing, losing their machine or it being stolen, as
opposed to just under a third of consumers who fear virus attack
(31 percent).
"It is encouraging to see that more and more people are becoming
aware about backup and recovery," David Blackman, General Manager
Northern Europe at Acronis explains. "However, consumer backup
practices are still sloppy and many of us are putting months' worth
of data at risk. While awareness of backup is creeping up behind
antivirus we're still not at the stage that security products are
at. What is needed is backup software similar to antivirus
solutions, which is easy to use and backs up data without the
consumer even having to think about it."
Why backup and recovery is just as important as
antivirus:
- Backup and recovery tools can actually protect you if your antivirus fails. If your computer gets infected, simply roll back to the last good backup and reinstall.
- Antivirus may protect your machine from viruses, but what happens if the hard drive fails (which is highly likely as technology does not last forever). With backup and recovery software you can reinstall your system, applications and files to a new computer or PC.
- How about if your laptop gets lost or stolen? Where are your files? With online backup and recovery you can simply download your files to a new PC from a secure location.
- What happens if you did not update your security software and your PC cannot access the file you downloaded? Would you lose all your previous data?
- What would happen if your operating system did not start when you switch on your computer? Do you say goodbye to your data?
Acronis surveyed 440 consumers both face-to-face and online in
August 2010. Respondents were questioned in France, Germany, UK,
APAC, Sweden and Spain.
46 percent were female and 54 percent were male.
46 percent were female and 54 percent were male.
Acronis created the following video when questioning people for
this survey http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlSYfZwUdD0.
About Acronis:
Acronis is a leader in AI-native cyber protection, unifying data protection, cybersecurity, IT operations and hybrid infrastructure to deliver business continuity, security and compliance with less cost and complexity. More than 21,000 service providers trust Acronis to protect over 750,000 businesses in 150 countries. Acronis is headquartered in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. For more information, visit www.acronis.com.