Executive Summary:
Organizations store enormous amounts of data. For example, a company with even a relatively
small number of users can generate many terabytes of content each year in the form of word
processing documents, spreadsheets, presentations, videos, emails, images, scanned
documents and many other content types. Similarly, individual users can generate many
gigabytes of content each year that they must preserve for corporate and/or personal
requirements. This content must be backed up for a variety of reasons, including disaster
recovery, business continuity, legal and regulatory compliance, theft, and just good data
protection practice.
However, there are several factors that complicate the problem of backing up data, including an
increasingly dispersed workforce as a result of more employees working from home, more
devices on which users can generate and store content, and more stringent corporate
governance requirements that require organizations to preserve
content for long periods of time. Add to this the variety of
problems that could potentially make data temporarily
inaccessible or destroy it permanently, including natural
disasters, power outages, lost devices, hardware failures and
user errors.
Moreover, many organizations and users do not back up their
data on a regular basis because they don’t have the time,
backup processes are too time consuming, or they simply forget
to do so.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
There are four primary takeaways discussed in this white paper:
• Business records and other content, as well as personal information, represent critical
information that must be preserved, sometimes for very long periods or indefinitely in some
cases.
• A failure to properly back up data and make it readily available to users can have disastrous
consequences in any organization.
• Traditional backup capabilities are lacking in several key respects, not least of which is the
fact that many organizations do not keep them in geographically remote locations to protect
against natural and other disasters.
• Cloud-based backup and synchronization services can directly address the problems that
organizations and individuals face in the context of their data management requirements
and should be seriously considered as a way to protect data and to make it easily available.
ABOUT THIS WHITE PAPER
This white paper discusses the critical importance of protecting corporate data, as well as the
benefits of cloud-based backup and synchronization services. It also discusses the relevant
offerings from Backblaze, the sponsor of this white paper.
Many organizations
and users do not
back up their data
on a regular basis
because they don’t
have the time,
backup processes
are too time
consuming, or they
simply forget to do
so.Understanding the Benefits of Online Backup and Data Synchronization
Users Generate and Store Enormous Amounts of Data
Users create large amounts of content in the form of emails, word processing documents,
spreadsheets, presentations, video files, image files, audio files, instant messaging
conversations, notes and all sorts of other content – and they store this content for long periods
of time. For example, let’s assume that the typical user conservatively produces the following:
• 30 emails per day (a total of 350 kilobytes)
• Three word processing documents per day (a total of 300 kilobytes)
• One spreadsheet per day (50 kilobytes)
• Two presentations per week (500 kilobytes)
• One video file every two weeks (10 megabytes)
That means that during a year’s time (250 workdays), the typical user would very
conservatively generate 320 megabytes of content.
However, it’s important to note that this content is typically shared among many users and sent to others inside and outside the
organization, all of whom will store their own copies of this data. The result is that the typical
user generally stores 25 to 50 gigabytes of data. With data stores growing at roughly 40%
annually, this means that users are adding roughly 10 to 20 gigabytes of storage every year.
Some of this content is produced by users themselves, but most is content that they receive
and store for future use.
DATA STORES CONTINUE TO GET LARGER OVER TIME
Not only do users and corporate systems generate large amounts of data, but also this content
must be stored for long periods of time for a variety of reasons:
• Users have a variety of individual requirements to store the content they generate, either
because of corporate policies to store certain types of information or simply for personal
reasons so that they can refer to older content or have a record of what they have done in
their job.
• More importantly, virtually every organization has an obligation to preserve its business
records for purposes of e-discovery, regulatory obligations or industry best practice. For
example, in the United States:
o Accountants of publicly held corporations must retain certain records and workpapers
relevant to the audit or review of such corporations’ financial statements for seven
years.
o Employers must retain documents related to hiring, promotion, demotion, transfer,
layoff or termination for one year from the date of record production or the personnel
action involved, whichever occurs later. If a charge of discrimination has been filed, or a
civil action brought against an employer, the employer must retain all personnel records
relevant to the charge or action until the final disposition of the case.
o Certain types of financial services firms must maintain a record of each order to
purchase or sell securities for a period of seven years from the date the order record
was created; for the first two years, these records must be kept in an “easily accessible”Understanding the Benefits of Online Backup and Data Synchronization
location.
o Hiring documents – including job applications, resumes, job inquiries, and records of
refusals to hire – must be retained for one year from the date of the personnel action.
o Code 12946 of the California Fair Employment and Housing Act requires employers and
employment agencies to maintain and preserve any and all applications, personnel,
membership or employment referral records and files for a minimum of two years. Also,
companies involved in employment-based legal complaints are not permitted to destroy
records until all appeals or related proceedings are terminated.
o Business and other records held by companies of all sizes must be retained for long
periods in the event they are required for production during legal actions. While there is
typically no codified length of time that this content must be preserved, organizations
should normally expect to retain their records for a minimum of three years, but in some
cases this can be much longer.
What this means is that records must be stored for significant
lengths of time, resulting in data stores that continue to grow in
size over time. In an era of increased requirements for
corporate governance and greater government oversight, we
expect data stores to continue to grow at an even faster rate in
the future as more data is produced and less data is deleted.
THE NUMBER OF DEVICES CONTINUES TO GROW:
Further complicating the data storage issue is the increasing
number of devices that individuals use to generate and store
content: desktop computers, laptop/notebook/netbook
computers, smartphones, tablet computers, USB sticks, etc.
This not only increases the difficulties associated with storing
data using conventional approaches, but it also tends to
increase the overall quantity of content that users and
organizations store. Further, users must be able to access current versions of data across all of
these devices.
ORGANIZATIONS MUST STORE DATA FROM MANY SOURCES:
Similarly, organizations must store all of the content on file servers, backup tapes, disk-based
backup systems, archiving systems, SharePoint repositories, application databases and other
data stores. Moreover, corporate systems that generate purchase orders, documents related to
supply chain management, invoices, logs and other files account for a large share of the
content that organizations must retain.
This has led to a situation in which data is produced by multiple systems and is stored in a large
number of locations, making data management and backup that much more difficult. For
example, the following figure from an Osterman Research survey conducted earlier in 2011
shows that the typical organization stores data in a diverse group of locations.
In an era of
increased requirements for corporate
governance and
greater government
oversight, we expect
data stores to
continue to grow at
an even faster rate
in the future as
more data is
produced and less
data is deleted.Understanding the Benefits of Online Backup and Data Synchronization
Locations in Which Data is Stored
A GROWING PROPORTION OF USERS ARE WORKING REMOTELY:
An important trend that is having significant implications on data storage, backup and content
synchronization is the growing proportion of users who work remotely. The availability and
deployment of unified communications systems and cloud-based communication technologies
make it easier for organizations to let users work from home or from other remote locations on
a regular basis. Employees are motivated to do so because of reduced commute time, lower
vehicle operating costs and overall quality-of-life issues. Employers are motivated to permit
telework for two important reasons:
• They can significantly reduce their real estate costs and property taxes by operating smaller
offices. For example, a 250-employee company in which staff members average two days
per week working from home needs to provide workspace for only 150 employees. If we
assume a real estate cost of $20 per square foot per year and 150 square feet required per
employee, reducing the office space for 100 employees can result in annual real estate
savings of $300,000 annually in addition to reduced power, cooling and other costs.
• Moreover, productivity can be substantially higher when employees work from home. For
example, if just 40% of an employee’s commute time was devoted to work, an employee
with a fully burdened annual salary of $80,000 would generate more than $1,500 in
additional productivity each year for his or her employer.Understanding the Benefits of Online Backup and Data Synchronization
Despite the advantages to both employees and employers of working remotely, there are a
number of additional problems created from telework, including the sheer number of venues at
which data is stored, the increased difficulty of protecting sensitive and confidential data, the
difficulties associated with reliably backing up this data, and synchronizing data across multiple
systems and locations to avoid version control problems.
What Could Happen to Your Data?
Not only are there problems with managing data generated by multiple systems, stored in many
locations and accessed by geographically distributed employees, but there are a number of
major and minor problems that can negatively impact organizations and the individual users
within them – and the data to which they must have access:
• Natural disasters
Natural disasters impact just about every location on earth at one time or another. In the
United States, for example, there is an annual average of 1.8 hurricanesi
, 818 tornadoesii
(although there were 1,458 tornadoes in 2011 as of June 8thiii), 75,000 people driven from
their homes by floodsiv, and 63.8 earthquakes of magnitude 5.0 or greaterv
. Fires, although
most not a disaster from “natural” causes, are another major issue for businesses and other
non-residential organizations – in 2009, for example, there were 16,500 fires in stores and
offices and 5,500 fires in institutional properties in the United States, not including the large
number of residential firesvi
.
• Power outages
Major power outages in the United States are on the increase. For example, the North
American Electric Reliability Council (NERC) Disturbance Analysis Working Group has found
that there were 41 power outages impacting 50,000 or more customers during the period
1991-1995, 58 such outages during 1996-2000 and 92 such outages during 2001-2005vii
.
While power outages normally impact data access and backups temporarily, these outages
can damage computer equipment and can destroy data.
• Lost devices
The proliferation of smartphones, laptop computers, tablets and other mobile devices that
contain corporate and other data has created another growing problem, namely lost
devices. For example, a 2008 survey by Credant Technologies found that more than 3,000
laptops and 55,000 mobile phones were left in London taxis during just a six-month
periodviii. Even as far back as 2006, a Pointsec Mobile Technologies survey found that
during a six month period users left 8,701 devices in Washington, DC and Baltimore-area
taxis, while 3.106 devices were left in taxis in the San Francisco Bay Areaix
. The problem is
getting dramatically worse as the number of mobile devices proliferate.
• Other problems
Although all of these problems can and do create data loss, there are much more common
causes of data loss. For example, a Google studyx
discovered there is a 36% chance of
hard drive failure within a five-year period. An analysis of Apple’s Time Capsule failure rate
found 7.3% of these high-capacity devices failed after approximately 19 months of usexi
.
Even solid-state drives have a reasonably high failure rate – as high as 2.39% according to Understanding the Benefits of Online Backup and Data Synchronization
©2011 Osterman Research, Inc. 6
hardware.frxii
. One source estimates that 4mm DAT tapes have an annual failure rate of
11.1%xiii
.
Add to this the occasional leaky sprinkler pipe above a user’s PC or a server room, the cup
of coffee spilled on a laptop keyboard, or the USB stick that gets left behind at a client’soffice never to be seen again.
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN DATA IS LOST?
When data is lost there are three primary consequences that can occur:
• The least harmful consequence is that users must rekey in
lost data (assuming they are even able to do so), resulting
in major productivity losses as users create their work a
second time. This can lead to major delays in projects,
missed deadlines, missed sales opportunities, unhappy
clients and other serious problems.
• Lost data can also have more serious consequences,
including the inability to recover lost intellectual property, an
inability to recreate data that has been generated by past
employees, missing email and records of other
communications, lost business and tax records, etc. This
can create serious problems on a number of levels, with
ramifications that may greatly exceed the productivity losses
that can result from lost data.
• While some statistics, such as those indicating that the
majority of businesses that lose data go out of business a
short time later, appear to be more hype than realityxiv
,
businesses that lose data for any reason are at a severe
disadvantage relative to those that do not lose data.
WHAT DOES ALL OF THIS MEAN?
Summarizing the preceding few pages reveals that there are four fundamental issues that any
decision maker should take into account when formulating a data management plan:
• Users and organizations are creating and storing large and growing quantities of data.
• This data must be stored for longer periods and for a variety of reasons, including those
driven by legal considerations, regulatory requirements, corporate best practice and
individual user needs.
• Data is stored in a growing number of locations, including the large number of traditional
data stores within the workplace, as well as mobile devices, portable storage devices,
employees’ home computers and other venues.
• Loss of data carries with it enormous consequences that, in some cases, could put an
organization out of business.
Data is stored in a
growing number of
locations, including
the large number of
traditional data
stores within the
workplace, as well
as mobile devices,
portable storage
devices, employees’
home computers
and other venues.
Loss of data carries
with it enormous
consequences that,
in some cases, could
put an organization
out of business.Understanding the Benefits of Online Backup and Data Synchronization
Best Practices for Backup and Data Synchronization:
There are seven key practices that any organization – regardless of its size or the industry in
which it participates – should follow. These are also good advice for individual users who need
to protect personal records, images, videos and other content:
1. Protect data
It is absolutely critical that all data be protected by making backups of this data on a realtime or near real-time basis. Good practice dictates that all data is backed up to tape or
disk, but best practice requires that all data is backed up to a geographically distant
location, such as a secondary location or the cloud. Doing so is critical to protect against a
variety of eventualities, such as a hurricane, tornado, flood, fire or other catastrophe that
heavily damages or destroys a corporate location, as well as the data it houses. Backing up
to a distant location is also critical in case a corporate location becomes inaccessible or
unusable due to a snowstorm, police action, terrorist attack, or a utility failure (such as a
broken gas main) that causes an evacuation of a particular area; or in the event of a power
outage.
2. Encrypt data
It is essential that data is encrypted behind the corporate firewall and/or on the client
before being sent over the Internet. This will ensure that data is protected both in transit
and at rest. It also ensures that in the unlikely event of a data breach at the remote
location, user data cannot be accessed.
3. Make backups automatic and continuous
Backups should be automatic so that users or administrators are not required to intervene in
the backup process. This will ensure that backups are not dependent on individuals
remembering to backup content stores. As a corollary to this point, backups should be
continuous and as close to real time as possible so that newly created data is not lost in the
event of a power failure or other problem.
4. Make data easily accessible in case of disaster
Not only is it critical to back up data, preferably to a distant location, but it is just as critical
to make this data available easily and quickly for purposes of server restoration, giving users
the ability to access their individual data when working at a new location, or bringing a new
facility online rapidly. For example, if users need to move to new, temporary offices after
an earthquake, it is imperative that users in the new location or those working from home
have access to all of their data as quickly as possible.
5. Make data easily accessible to users in near real time
Another important part of any data protection and management strategy is the ability to
make all data easily accessible to users in as close to real time as possible. For example,
data backup and synchronization capabilities are very important for users who collaborate in
geographically separate locations so that they can have access to the latest versions of
documents, spreadsheets and other content. An inability to provide rapid access to the
most current information can lead to employee downtime while waiting for content to be
sent through email, version control problems and other impediments to efficient work.Understanding the Benefits of Online Backup and Data Synchronization
6. Make backup and sync as simple and painless as possible
Finally, but certainly not least important, is making backup and synchronization as painless
as possible for users and IT staff alike. Because these capabilities can be a major source of
difficulty and a significant consumer of time for IT administrators, they should be as
painless as possible to deploy, configure and manage.
7. Storage should be unlimited or inexpensive
Because data storage requirements will likely be greater than most individuals or
organizations anticipate, it is important to use a provider that will provide either unlimited
storage or storage that will be and remain inexpensive as data stores increase in size.
Why Consider Cloud-Based Backup and Sync?
There is a growing number of cloud-based backup and/or synchronization (backup/sync)
services that will automatically copy content to remote storage systems and make it available
from any Internet-connected computer with the appropriate access credentials. There are
several reasons that any organization should consider using such a service:
• Data will be protected
A cloud-based backup/sync service, by automatically and
continuously migrating content to remote storage systems,
will provide the inherent protection of data that
organizations require. Further, because the data is moved
automatically to a remote location (and further backed up
from there), the best practice of keeping corporate data in
at least two geographically separate locations can be
achieved. This means that even if one or more locations
that house corporate data becomes inaccessible due to a
catastrophe or a less serious incident, all data is protected
and can be accessed from any other location.
Cloud-based backup/sync services are superior to traditional
practices that back up data to tape or other media and then
store these backups in a remote location because of two
inherent limitations of this practice:
o These backups, even if performed nightly, will not
capture data stored between backup windows. For
example, if the nightly backup occurs between 2:00am
and 6:00am each morning and a disaster occurs at
3:00pm one day, up to nine hours of data will be lost
and is potentially not recoverable.
o Moreover, shipping or driving tapes and other media to a
remote location is expensive and time-consuming, and
can expose this content to loss from theft or negligence.
A cloud-based
backup/sync
service, by
automatically and
continuously
migrating content to
remote storage
systems, will
provide the inherent
protection of data
that organizations
require. Further,
because the data is
moved automatically
to a remote location
(and further backed
up from there), the
best practice of
keeping corporate
data in at least two
geographically
separate locations
can be achieved.Understanding the Benefits of Online Backup and Data Synchronization
• Corporate governance obligations will be easier to satisfy
Cloud-based backup/sync services make corporate governance obligations easier to satisfy
by automatically making backups of critical business records that must be retained for legal,
regulatory or other reasons. By migrating these records to cloud-based storage and
establishing the appropriate retention periods for them, organizations can be assured that
they will have preserved critical content for the appropriate length of time. While a backup
of this content is not an archive in the sense that the information has not been indexed and
therefore made easily searchable, at least the retention of this content – a key requirement
– will have been accomplished.
• Employee productivity will be improved
Another important benefit of a backup/sync service is that employees are given ready
access to content regardless of their location. For example, an employee who creates a
document at work and then wants to continue working on the document after he or she
arrives at home can easily access that document. The updated document will then be
available when the employee is at work the next day.
Other employee-focused benefits of a backup/sync service include employees not having to
recreate lost content, not having to ask others for copies of files, or experiencing version
control problems that can lead to lost productivity and other problems.
• Cloud-based storage can be less expensive
Cloud-based backup/sync services can also be less expensive than their on-premises
counterparts when all of the costs of the latter are included. These include the cost of the
tape drives, servers or other hardware and software elements necessary to perform the
backups; the media on which the backups are stored; the transportation of media to a
remote location for safekeeping; the IT labor required to manage and troubleshoot backup
systems; and the opportunity cost of having internal IT staff manage what is, for all intents
and purposes, a relatively mundane aspect of data management.
• There are other, intangible benefits
Cloud-based backup/sync services can also provide a number of benefits that may be more
difficult to identify or quantify, but are nonetheless important to consider. For example,
losing data can create a perception of corporate mismanagement – customers and business
partners may fear that their data may be at risk and may have somehow become
compromised as a result. Employees may become angry when they realize that they might
have to recreate days’ worth of content in advance of a meeting or presentation. Even if IT
regularly backs up content to tape or disk, finding and restoring this content – if IT even
has the bandwidth to perform these tasks – can take several hours.
Questions You May Want to Ask
Osterman Research recommends that decision makers consider asking at least some of the
following questions when evaluating vendors of online backup and/or synchronization services:Understanding the Benefits of Online Backup and Data Synchronization
©2011 Osterman Research, Inc. 10
QUESTIONS TO ASK OF YOUR SENIOR MANAGEMENT:
• Are you comfortable with the notion of having corporate data stored in the cloud? You
should be, so if not, why not?
• How vulnerable is our organization to data loss?
• If you (senior management) are not comfortable with having corporate data stored in the
cloud, what is our disaster recovery and business continuity plan for recovering data assets
after a natural disaster, power outage, fire, flood, etc.?
• Have you conducted a direct and opportunity cost analysis of providing disaster recovery
and business continuity capabilities using on-premises/internally managed systems?
• Have you evaluated the costs of online backup and/or data synchronization services relative
to on-premises/internally managed systems?
QUESTIONS TO ASK OF A PROSPECTIVE PROVIDER: COMPANY BASICS:
• Is your company financially viable?
• How long have you been in business?
• How many customers do you support and how has this changed over the past six months?
The past year?
• What size and type of customers do you support?
• Can you provide referenceable customers that are similar to our organization?
• What corporate certifications or audits do you offer?
• What happens to our data if we want to switch to another provider?
QUESTIONS TO ASK OF A PROSPECTIVE PROVIDER: WHAT’S INCLUDED?
• What is the minimum number of users that you require for an account?
• How much data can be stored per user? In aggregate?
• Do you provide unlimited storage for a fixed price?
• If there is a maximum amount of storage for our company, can this storage be allocated
differentially across your users, or is it a fixed amount per user?
• How much does storage cost per gigabyte beyond the basic amount included in each
Organizations store enormous amounts of data. For example, a company with even a relatively
small number of users can generate many terabytes of content each year in the form of word
processing documents, spreadsheets, presentations, videos, emails, images, scanned
documents and many other content types. Similarly, individual users can generate many
gigabytes of content each year that they must preserve for corporate and/or personal
requirements. This content must be backed up for a variety of reasons, including disaster
recovery, business continuity, legal and regulatory compliance, theft, and just good data
protection practice.
However, there are several factors that complicate the problem of backing up data, including an
increasingly dispersed workforce as a result of more employees working from home, more
devices on which users can generate and store content, and more stringent corporate
governance requirements that require organizations to preserve
content for long periods of time. Add to this the variety of
problems that could potentially make data temporarily
inaccessible or destroy it permanently, including natural
disasters, power outages, lost devices, hardware failures and
user errors.
Moreover, many organizations and users do not back up their
data on a regular basis because they don’t have the time,
backup processes are too time consuming, or they simply forget
to do so.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
There are four primary takeaways discussed in this white paper:
• Business records and other content, as well as personal information, represent critical
information that must be preserved, sometimes for very long periods or indefinitely in some
cases.
• A failure to properly back up data and make it readily available to users can have disastrous
consequences in any organization.
• Traditional backup capabilities are lacking in several key respects, not least of which is the
fact that many organizations do not keep them in geographically remote locations to protect
against natural and other disasters.
• Cloud-based backup and synchronization services can directly address the problems that
organizations and individuals face in the context of their data management requirements
and should be seriously considered as a way to protect data and to make it easily available.
ABOUT THIS WHITE PAPER
This white paper discusses the critical importance of protecting corporate data, as well as the
benefits of cloud-based backup and synchronization services. It also discusses the relevant
offerings from Backblaze, the sponsor of this white paper.
Many organizations
and users do not
back up their data
on a regular basis
because they don’t
have the time,
backup processes
are too time
consuming, or they
simply forget to do
so.Understanding the Benefits of Online Backup and Data Synchronization
Users Generate and Store Enormous Amounts of Data
Users create large amounts of content in the form of emails, word processing documents,
spreadsheets, presentations, video files, image files, audio files, instant messaging
conversations, notes and all sorts of other content – and they store this content for long periods
of time. For example, let’s assume that the typical user conservatively produces the following:
• 30 emails per day (a total of 350 kilobytes)
• Three word processing documents per day (a total of 300 kilobytes)
• One spreadsheet per day (50 kilobytes)
• Two presentations per week (500 kilobytes)
• One video file every two weeks (10 megabytes)
That means that during a year’s time (250 workdays), the typical user would very
conservatively generate 320 megabytes of content.
However, it’s important to note that this content is typically shared among many users and sent to others inside and outside the
organization, all of whom will store their own copies of this data. The result is that the typical
user generally stores 25 to 50 gigabytes of data. With data stores growing at roughly 40%
annually, this means that users are adding roughly 10 to 20 gigabytes of storage every year.
Some of this content is produced by users themselves, but most is content that they receive
and store for future use.
DATA STORES CONTINUE TO GET LARGER OVER TIME
Not only do users and corporate systems generate large amounts of data, but also this content
must be stored for long periods of time for a variety of reasons:
• Users have a variety of individual requirements to store the content they generate, either
because of corporate policies to store certain types of information or simply for personal
reasons so that they can refer to older content or have a record of what they have done in
their job.
• More importantly, virtually every organization has an obligation to preserve its business
records for purposes of e-discovery, regulatory obligations or industry best practice. For
example, in the United States:
o Accountants of publicly held corporations must retain certain records and workpapers
relevant to the audit or review of such corporations’ financial statements for seven
years.
o Employers must retain documents related to hiring, promotion, demotion, transfer,
layoff or termination for one year from the date of record production or the personnel
action involved, whichever occurs later. If a charge of discrimination has been filed, or a
civil action brought against an employer, the employer must retain all personnel records
relevant to the charge or action until the final disposition of the case.
o Certain types of financial services firms must maintain a record of each order to
purchase or sell securities for a period of seven years from the date the order record
was created; for the first two years, these records must be kept in an “easily accessible”Understanding the Benefits of Online Backup and Data Synchronization
location.
o Hiring documents – including job applications, resumes, job inquiries, and records of
refusals to hire – must be retained for one year from the date of the personnel action.
o Code 12946 of the California Fair Employment and Housing Act requires employers and
employment agencies to maintain and preserve any and all applications, personnel,
membership or employment referral records and files for a minimum of two years. Also,
companies involved in employment-based legal complaints are not permitted to destroy
records until all appeals or related proceedings are terminated.
o Business and other records held by companies of all sizes must be retained for long
periods in the event they are required for production during legal actions. While there is
typically no codified length of time that this content must be preserved, organizations
should normally expect to retain their records for a minimum of three years, but in some
cases this can be much longer.
What this means is that records must be stored for significant
lengths of time, resulting in data stores that continue to grow in
size over time. In an era of increased requirements for
corporate governance and greater government oversight, we
expect data stores to continue to grow at an even faster rate in
the future as more data is produced and less data is deleted.
THE NUMBER OF DEVICES CONTINUES TO GROW:
Further complicating the data storage issue is the increasing
number of devices that individuals use to generate and store
content: desktop computers, laptop/notebook/netbook
computers, smartphones, tablet computers, USB sticks, etc.
This not only increases the difficulties associated with storing
data using conventional approaches, but it also tends to
increase the overall quantity of content that users and
organizations store. Further, users must be able to access current versions of data across all of
these devices.
ORGANIZATIONS MUST STORE DATA FROM MANY SOURCES:
Similarly, organizations must store all of the content on file servers, backup tapes, disk-based
backup systems, archiving systems, SharePoint repositories, application databases and other
data stores. Moreover, corporate systems that generate purchase orders, documents related to
supply chain management, invoices, logs and other files account for a large share of the
content that organizations must retain.
This has led to a situation in which data is produced by multiple systems and is stored in a large
number of locations, making data management and backup that much more difficult. For
example, the following figure from an Osterman Research survey conducted earlier in 2011
shows that the typical organization stores data in a diverse group of locations.
In an era of
increased requirements for corporate
governance and
greater government
oversight, we expect
data stores to
continue to grow at
an even faster rate
in the future as
more data is
produced and less
data is deleted.Understanding the Benefits of Online Backup and Data Synchronization
Locations in Which Data is Stored
A GROWING PROPORTION OF USERS ARE WORKING REMOTELY:
An important trend that is having significant implications on data storage, backup and content
synchronization is the growing proportion of users who work remotely. The availability and
deployment of unified communications systems and cloud-based communication technologies
make it easier for organizations to let users work from home or from other remote locations on
a regular basis. Employees are motivated to do so because of reduced commute time, lower
vehicle operating costs and overall quality-of-life issues. Employers are motivated to permit
telework for two important reasons:
• They can significantly reduce their real estate costs and property taxes by operating smaller
offices. For example, a 250-employee company in which staff members average two days
per week working from home needs to provide workspace for only 150 employees. If we
assume a real estate cost of $20 per square foot per year and 150 square feet required per
employee, reducing the office space for 100 employees can result in annual real estate
savings of $300,000 annually in addition to reduced power, cooling and other costs.
• Moreover, productivity can be substantially higher when employees work from home. For
example, if just 40% of an employee’s commute time was devoted to work, an employee
with a fully burdened annual salary of $80,000 would generate more than $1,500 in
additional productivity each year for his or her employer.Understanding the Benefits of Online Backup and Data Synchronization
Despite the advantages to both employees and employers of working remotely, there are a
number of additional problems created from telework, including the sheer number of venues at
which data is stored, the increased difficulty of protecting sensitive and confidential data, the
difficulties associated with reliably backing up this data, and synchronizing data across multiple
systems and locations to avoid version control problems.
What Could Happen to Your Data?
Not only are there problems with managing data generated by multiple systems, stored in many
locations and accessed by geographically distributed employees, but there are a number of
major and minor problems that can negatively impact organizations and the individual users
within them – and the data to which they must have access:
• Natural disasters
Natural disasters impact just about every location on earth at one time or another. In the
United States, for example, there is an annual average of 1.8 hurricanesi
, 818 tornadoesii
(although there were 1,458 tornadoes in 2011 as of June 8thiii), 75,000 people driven from
their homes by floodsiv, and 63.8 earthquakes of magnitude 5.0 or greaterv
. Fires, although
most not a disaster from “natural” causes, are another major issue for businesses and other
non-residential organizations – in 2009, for example, there were 16,500 fires in stores and
offices and 5,500 fires in institutional properties in the United States, not including the large
number of residential firesvi
.
• Power outages
Major power outages in the United States are on the increase. For example, the North
American Electric Reliability Council (NERC) Disturbance Analysis Working Group has found
that there were 41 power outages impacting 50,000 or more customers during the period
1991-1995, 58 such outages during 1996-2000 and 92 such outages during 2001-2005vii
.
While power outages normally impact data access and backups temporarily, these outages
can damage computer equipment and can destroy data.
• Lost devices
The proliferation of smartphones, laptop computers, tablets and other mobile devices that
contain corporate and other data has created another growing problem, namely lost
devices. For example, a 2008 survey by Credant Technologies found that more than 3,000
laptops and 55,000 mobile phones were left in London taxis during just a six-month
periodviii. Even as far back as 2006, a Pointsec Mobile Technologies survey found that
during a six month period users left 8,701 devices in Washington, DC and Baltimore-area
taxis, while 3.106 devices were left in taxis in the San Francisco Bay Areaix
. The problem is
getting dramatically worse as the number of mobile devices proliferate.
• Other problems
Although all of these problems can and do create data loss, there are much more common
causes of data loss. For example, a Google studyx
discovered there is a 36% chance of
hard drive failure within a five-year period. An analysis of Apple’s Time Capsule failure rate
found 7.3% of these high-capacity devices failed after approximately 19 months of usexi
.
Even solid-state drives have a reasonably high failure rate – as high as 2.39% according to Understanding the Benefits of Online Backup and Data Synchronization
©2011 Osterman Research, Inc. 6
hardware.frxii
. One source estimates that 4mm DAT tapes have an annual failure rate of
11.1%xiii
.
Add to this the occasional leaky sprinkler pipe above a user’s PC or a server room, the cup
of coffee spilled on a laptop keyboard, or the USB stick that gets left behind at a client’soffice never to be seen again.
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN DATA IS LOST?
When data is lost there are three primary consequences that can occur:
• The least harmful consequence is that users must rekey in
lost data (assuming they are even able to do so), resulting
in major productivity losses as users create their work a
second time. This can lead to major delays in projects,
missed deadlines, missed sales opportunities, unhappy
clients and other serious problems.
• Lost data can also have more serious consequences,
including the inability to recover lost intellectual property, an
inability to recreate data that has been generated by past
employees, missing email and records of other
communications, lost business and tax records, etc. This
can create serious problems on a number of levels, with
ramifications that may greatly exceed the productivity losses
that can result from lost data.
• While some statistics, such as those indicating that the
majority of businesses that lose data go out of business a
short time later, appear to be more hype than realityxiv
,
businesses that lose data for any reason are at a severe
disadvantage relative to those that do not lose data.
WHAT DOES ALL OF THIS MEAN?
Summarizing the preceding few pages reveals that there are four fundamental issues that any
decision maker should take into account when formulating a data management plan:
• Users and organizations are creating and storing large and growing quantities of data.
• This data must be stored for longer periods and for a variety of reasons, including those
driven by legal considerations, regulatory requirements, corporate best practice and
individual user needs.
• Data is stored in a growing number of locations, including the large number of traditional
data stores within the workplace, as well as mobile devices, portable storage devices,
employees’ home computers and other venues.
• Loss of data carries with it enormous consequences that, in some cases, could put an
organization out of business.
Data is stored in a
growing number of
locations, including
the large number of
traditional data
stores within the
workplace, as well
as mobile devices,
portable storage
devices, employees’
home computers
and other venues.
Loss of data carries
with it enormous
consequences that,
in some cases, could
put an organization
out of business.Understanding the Benefits of Online Backup and Data Synchronization
Best Practices for Backup and Data Synchronization:
There are seven key practices that any organization – regardless of its size or the industry in
which it participates – should follow. These are also good advice for individual users who need
to protect personal records, images, videos and other content:
1. Protect data
It is absolutely critical that all data be protected by making backups of this data on a realtime or near real-time basis. Good practice dictates that all data is backed up to tape or
disk, but best practice requires that all data is backed up to a geographically distant
location, such as a secondary location or the cloud. Doing so is critical to protect against a
variety of eventualities, such as a hurricane, tornado, flood, fire or other catastrophe that
heavily damages or destroys a corporate location, as well as the data it houses. Backing up
to a distant location is also critical in case a corporate location becomes inaccessible or
unusable due to a snowstorm, police action, terrorist attack, or a utility failure (such as a
broken gas main) that causes an evacuation of a particular area; or in the event of a power
outage.
2. Encrypt data
It is essential that data is encrypted behind the corporate firewall and/or on the client
before being sent over the Internet. This will ensure that data is protected both in transit
and at rest. It also ensures that in the unlikely event of a data breach at the remote
location, user data cannot be accessed.
3. Make backups automatic and continuous
Backups should be automatic so that users or administrators are not required to intervene in
the backup process. This will ensure that backups are not dependent on individuals
remembering to backup content stores. As a corollary to this point, backups should be
continuous and as close to real time as possible so that newly created data is not lost in the
event of a power failure or other problem.
4. Make data easily accessible in case of disaster
Not only is it critical to back up data, preferably to a distant location, but it is just as critical
to make this data available easily and quickly for purposes of server restoration, giving users
the ability to access their individual data when working at a new location, or bringing a new
facility online rapidly. For example, if users need to move to new, temporary offices after
an earthquake, it is imperative that users in the new location or those working from home
have access to all of their data as quickly as possible.
5. Make data easily accessible to users in near real time
Another important part of any data protection and management strategy is the ability to
make all data easily accessible to users in as close to real time as possible. For example,
data backup and synchronization capabilities are very important for users who collaborate in
geographically separate locations so that they can have access to the latest versions of
documents, spreadsheets and other content. An inability to provide rapid access to the
most current information can lead to employee downtime while waiting for content to be
sent through email, version control problems and other impediments to efficient work.Understanding the Benefits of Online Backup and Data Synchronization
6. Make backup and sync as simple and painless as possible
Finally, but certainly not least important, is making backup and synchronization as painless
as possible for users and IT staff alike. Because these capabilities can be a major source of
difficulty and a significant consumer of time for IT administrators, they should be as
painless as possible to deploy, configure and manage.
7. Storage should be unlimited or inexpensive
Because data storage requirements will likely be greater than most individuals or
organizations anticipate, it is important to use a provider that will provide either unlimited
storage or storage that will be and remain inexpensive as data stores increase in size.
Why Consider Cloud-Based Backup and Sync?
There is a growing number of cloud-based backup and/or synchronization (backup/sync)
services that will automatically copy content to remote storage systems and make it available
from any Internet-connected computer with the appropriate access credentials. There are
several reasons that any organization should consider using such a service:
• Data will be protected
A cloud-based backup/sync service, by automatically and
continuously migrating content to remote storage systems,
will provide the inherent protection of data that
organizations require. Further, because the data is moved
automatically to a remote location (and further backed up
from there), the best practice of keeping corporate data in
at least two geographically separate locations can be
achieved. This means that even if one or more locations
that house corporate data becomes inaccessible due to a
catastrophe or a less serious incident, all data is protected
and can be accessed from any other location.
Cloud-based backup/sync services are superior to traditional
practices that back up data to tape or other media and then
store these backups in a remote location because of two
inherent limitations of this practice:
o These backups, even if performed nightly, will not
capture data stored between backup windows. For
example, if the nightly backup occurs between 2:00am
and 6:00am each morning and a disaster occurs at
3:00pm one day, up to nine hours of data will be lost
and is potentially not recoverable.
o Moreover, shipping or driving tapes and other media to a
remote location is expensive and time-consuming, and
can expose this content to loss from theft or negligence.
A cloud-based
backup/sync
service, by
automatically and
continuously
migrating content to
remote storage
systems, will
provide the inherent
protection of data
that organizations
require. Further,
because the data is
moved automatically
to a remote location
(and further backed
up from there), the
best practice of
keeping corporate
data in at least two
geographically
separate locations
can be achieved.Understanding the Benefits of Online Backup and Data Synchronization
• Corporate governance obligations will be easier to satisfy
Cloud-based backup/sync services make corporate governance obligations easier to satisfy
by automatically making backups of critical business records that must be retained for legal,
regulatory or other reasons. By migrating these records to cloud-based storage and
establishing the appropriate retention periods for them, organizations can be assured that
they will have preserved critical content for the appropriate length of time. While a backup
of this content is not an archive in the sense that the information has not been indexed and
therefore made easily searchable, at least the retention of this content – a key requirement
– will have been accomplished.
• Employee productivity will be improved
Another important benefit of a backup/sync service is that employees are given ready
access to content regardless of their location. For example, an employee who creates a
document at work and then wants to continue working on the document after he or she
arrives at home can easily access that document. The updated document will then be
available when the employee is at work the next day.
Other employee-focused benefits of a backup/sync service include employees not having to
recreate lost content, not having to ask others for copies of files, or experiencing version
control problems that can lead to lost productivity and other problems.
• Cloud-based storage can be less expensive
Cloud-based backup/sync services can also be less expensive than their on-premises
counterparts when all of the costs of the latter are included. These include the cost of the
tape drives, servers or other hardware and software elements necessary to perform the
backups; the media on which the backups are stored; the transportation of media to a
remote location for safekeeping; the IT labor required to manage and troubleshoot backup
systems; and the opportunity cost of having internal IT staff manage what is, for all intents
and purposes, a relatively mundane aspect of data management.
• There are other, intangible benefits
Cloud-based backup/sync services can also provide a number of benefits that may be more
difficult to identify or quantify, but are nonetheless important to consider. For example,
losing data can create a perception of corporate mismanagement – customers and business
partners may fear that their data may be at risk and may have somehow become
compromised as a result. Employees may become angry when they realize that they might
have to recreate days’ worth of content in advance of a meeting or presentation. Even if IT
regularly backs up content to tape or disk, finding and restoring this content – if IT even
has the bandwidth to perform these tasks – can take several hours.
Questions You May Want to Ask
Osterman Research recommends that decision makers consider asking at least some of the
following questions when evaluating vendors of online backup and/or synchronization services:Understanding the Benefits of Online Backup and Data Synchronization
©2011 Osterman Research, Inc. 10
QUESTIONS TO ASK OF YOUR SENIOR MANAGEMENT:
• Are you comfortable with the notion of having corporate data stored in the cloud? You
should be, so if not, why not?
• How vulnerable is our organization to data loss?
• If you (senior management) are not comfortable with having corporate data stored in the
cloud, what is our disaster recovery and business continuity plan for recovering data assets
after a natural disaster, power outage, fire, flood, etc.?
• Have you conducted a direct and opportunity cost analysis of providing disaster recovery
and business continuity capabilities using on-premises/internally managed systems?
• Have you evaluated the costs of online backup and/or data synchronization services relative
to on-premises/internally managed systems?
QUESTIONS TO ASK OF A PROSPECTIVE PROVIDER: COMPANY BASICS:
• Is your company financially viable?
• How long have you been in business?
• How many customers do you support and how has this changed over the past six months?
The past year?
• What size and type of customers do you support?
• Can you provide referenceable customers that are similar to our organization?
• What corporate certifications or audits do you offer?
• What happens to our data if we want to switch to another provider?
QUESTIONS TO ASK OF A PROSPECTIVE PROVIDER: WHAT’S INCLUDED?
• What is the minimum number of users that you require for an account?
• How much data can be stored per user? In aggregate?
• Do you provide unlimited storage for a fixed price?
• If there is a maximum amount of storage for our company, can this storage be allocated
differentially across your users, or is it a fixed amount per user?
• How much does storage cost per gigabyte beyond the basic amount included in each
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