There is no doubt we have seen a swift transition from what digital transformation was, into what is now transformational completeness. In all areas of IT, the new normal is multi-cloud, also known as hybrid cloud, and very few remain behind on the digital transformation wave that began with the rise of virtualisation and cloud computing fifteen years ago. It’s time to stop talking about digital transformation and time to discuss the real challenges that now exist for businesses as they consume technology and create data in new ways.
This week, Veeam released our Data Protection Trends Report for 2020 and we were able to gather feedback from over 1500 (over 200 in Australia and New Zealand) businesses and IT decision makers from around the world. Moving on from digital transformation, it has become clear that the focus has indeed shifted to data protection. This covers more than just backup and extends to business continuity and ongoing capability. With the move to a multi-hybrid cloud world, where data is created on dispersed platforms and in ever increasing numbers, it’s important that businesses understand the criticality of how to ensure that data is protected. It’s also vital to comprehend how businesses can tap into that data and activate it for their ongoing benefit.
The average spend on data protection was found to be about half a million dollars (USD) but even with that sort of spend, 73% of total respondents thought they were unable to meet demands for continued access to their data and applications. Just under half have been impacted by downtime which affects brand and, as a result, over half of those have lost customers. Those numbers don’t just stem from more traditional backup and data protection strategies. With the digital transformation wave now complete and with businesses consuming technology differently, the threats have also changed. Just under half of ANZ businesses are worried about cyber-attacks and feel that there is a skill shortage in how to deal with these new, evolving threats.
This is where backup platforms can step in and help bridge that gap. When the tools continue to iterate and innovate side by side with the evolving threats, it makes it easier for IT administrators to make up the perceived shortfall in how to deal with threats as they happen. Doing less with more has become a real situation with extraordinary times meaning IT budget spend has decreased. Again, this can be made up with backup platforms that continue to enhance value through iterations. Not only are there increased threats, but the reality of storing more and more backup data means that there are challenges with cost and visibility. The report suggests that just under half of global organisations are now required to store their data for more than seven years. With that comes the realization that cloud-based technologies need to be leveraged to store that data more efficiently for long term retention.
The inflection point has almost been reached, and businesses have almost flipped to understanding that having offsite backup for business continuity is critical. This could be in the form of simple offsite repositories, or in the form of on demand or instant disaster recovery services that protect more tier one, critical line of business applications. A backup platform that can deliver on this growing need for simple and reliable business continuity solutions will help deliver on the completeness of the digital transformation. The benefits of leveraging Veeam as a modern data protection platform led 78% of the respondents to say that they were confident that they were always protected as environments and data continue to evolve, leading to a more than 200% return on their data protection investment.
The key take away for me in looking at the Veeam 2020 Data Protection Trends Report is that the focus has shifted away from where the data will live and be accessed from, and more towards how that data is stored for longer term retention and how that data can be leverage for recovery if disaster or attack happens.
