For organizations, data is increasingly becoming one of the most valuable assets. Therefore, protecting it is more critical than ever. Yet, most businesses struggle with adequate data protection, also in Switzerland.
Dell EMC has announced the results of the third Global Data Protection Index, after surveying 2,200 IT decision makers from both public and private companies with 250+ employees, across 11 industries and 18 countries. For Switzerland, the research included 100 respondents.
The Global Data Protection Index highlights a dangerous gap between the acknowledged importance of data and how organizations protect data concretely.
In fact, on average, organizations managed 9.70PB of data in 2018, representing an explosive growth of 569 percent compared to the 1.45PB managed in 2016. In parallel, 92% of businesses worldwide see the potential value of data, with 36% already monetizing it.
While this acknowledgement is positive, most respondents find it hard to properly protect their data. For example, according to the Global Data Protection Index, the number of businesses unable to recover data after an incident nearly doubled from 2016. Furthermore, only 16% of respondents believe their data protection solutions will meet all future challenges, and 45% are struggling to find suitable data protection solutions for newer technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Why is this a problem? Simply, because disruption incidents are costly. For example, those who encountered troubles in the last 12 months experienced on average 20 hours of downtime at a cost of about CHF 530,000. Furthermore, those who lost data lost 2.13 terabytes on average, with a price tag of about 1 million CHF. Additionally, many of those who experienced a disruption also indicated it had far-reaching business impacts, from customer trust to brand equity to employee productivity, to name a few.
If the value of data is acknowledged and the cost of incidents is clear, what are the challenges surrounding data protection? The top three challenges globally include:
• the complexity of configuring and operating data protection software/hardware, and the ballooning costs of storing and managing backup copies
• the lack of data protection solutions for emerging technologies
• compliancy with regulations like GDPR
Now, let’s take a closer look at Switzerland. How is it performing in terms of Global Data Protection Index?
According to the research, 89% of IT decision-makers acknowledge the value of data, and 35% are monetizing it. At the same time, 66% of Swiss companies have experienced an IT problem last year (versus 76% worldwide), and 28% of them have not been able to recover data (versus 27% worldwide). In the past 12 months, the Swiss businesses that have experienced IT problems have undergone an average downtime of 19 hours, at a cost of CHF 250,874. Furthermore, the companies that have lost data (on average higher than 0.4 terabytes) have incurred a loss of about half a million CHF.
In Switzerland, the number of organizations that have adopted consistent data protection solutions has increased by almost 20% in two years. While this is good news, much work can still be done.
To find out more about the Global Data Protection Index, go to www.dellemc.com/gdpi or check the links below:
View the Global Data Protection Index Infographic >
Review the Global Data Protection Index Key Findings Report >
