Unplanned Downtime, Security Breach and Data Loss - EMC/Vanson Bourne Survey

EMC Corporation recently conducted a very interesting study. The Global IT Trust Curve survey, administered by independent market research firm Vanson Bourne, spans 3,200 interviews across 16 countries and 10 industry sectors focuses on unplanned downtime, security breach and data loss. It reveals fresh insights about IT strategies and infrastructures deployed within companies and governments throughout the world, some of these findings are rather alarming.

Chief among the findings are:

Widespread unplanned downtime, security breaches and data loss:

• 61% of all respondents' companies have suffered at least one of the following incidents: unplanned downtime (37%), security breach (23%) or data loss (29%) in the last 12 months.
• Top 4 consequences across organizations experiencing at least one of the above incidents within the last 12 months were loss of employee productivity (45%), loss of revenue (39%), loss of customer      confidence/loyalty (32%) and loss of incremental business opportunity (27%).

Organizations with higher levels of maturity avoid- and recover more quickly from -disruptive incidents and with reduced consequence. For example, globally:

• 53% of organizations in the Leader segment of the IT Trust Curve reported data recovery time measured in minutes or less for their most mission critical applications. The percentage drops to 27% across all  maturity tiers.
• 76% of companies in the Leader segment believe they are able to recover 100% of their lost data in every instance versus only 44% in the lowest maturity segment.
• Organizations in the lowest maturity segment (Laggard) lost one and a half times more money over the last 12 months as a result of downtime than those in the highest maturity segment (Leader).
•  Security breaches were the most costly events suffered by respondents, who reported an average annual financial loss of $860,273 due to breaches, followed by $585,892 and $497,037 respectively for data loss and downtime.

I highly suggest taking a look at EMC’s graphical representation of all this data here. The information presented is pretty telling and doesn’t warrant further explanation. In other words, you get the point! I was quite surprised by the rampant lack of senior executive confidence when it comes to better data security planning. Nearly half of respondents say their senior management has zero confidence that their organizations are prepared with adequate availability, security, and backup and recovery. Ironically, it is the same executives that are likely making the budgetary calls for those areas to be deferred. Why is this? My guess is similar to the very same mantra that has governed Data Recovery all these years – “It isn’t a problem until it has happened”. And while it’s easier to make budgetary decisions around something that isn’t quantifiable, the study demonstrates that the quantities sure add up when data loss hits you – and it will!

Infographic provided by EMC.  Data based on research provided by Vanson Bourne.  The original infographic can be located at http://www.emc.com/infographics/it-trust-curve.htm.