UK Data Archiving Skills Lag Behind USA: Survey

Identical contemplates conducted in the UK and the USA put in mind of that businesses in the USA are more proficient at archiving data than in the UK says BridgeHead Software. The observe also shows that organisations in the UK perceive the burden of compliance regulations more than in the USA, despite the perception that regulation emanates from the USA itself.

Importantly, respondent in the one and the other countries demonstrated uncomfortably high horizontals of confusion around the different characters of backup and archiving.

Jon William Toigo, CEO of data management consulting and research firm Toigo Partners International said "The differences between US and UK companies with reverence to archiving practices may well throw back the dilemma confronting US IT organisations: that of having to cull and manage separate archive tools for databases, email, easy in mind management systems, and unsorted user files. Thus far, the US vendor community has shown little interest in cooperating in any sort of overarching scheme of archive management, which in turn round imposes a huge burden upon IT administrators. This issue has begun to be addressed through vendors like BridgeHead."

Key findings from the take a view of include:

* In the UK 28 by means of cent of companies do not archive data. In the USA, the figure is 23 by cent - a small improvement on the contrary still a significant minority.

* In the UK 25 through cent of those that do archive use a certain quantity of kind of automated tool. In the USA, this figure rises to 32 for cent.

* Respondents have different horizontals of faith in their archive managements In the UK, 15 through cent of respondents didn't know in what way long it would take them to retrieve a vital file missing three months ago, but in the USA this rises to 20 through cent. In the UK, sum of two units per cent of respondents admitted that they wouldn't be able to find the file, on the contrary this rose to six by cent among USA companies.

* Twenty sum of two units per cent of UK respondent cited compliance/corporate governance as a driver for archiving, on the other hand this figure fell to just 15 by means of cent among US respondents.

* However, asked if regulatory compliance was a factor at all in their business, 48 by means of cent of UK respondents said no, compared to 42 for cent in the USA.

* Forty eight by cent of UK respondents say that business continuity and disaster retrieval is a driver for archiving in their organisation. In the USA the figure is 40 by cent, but - despite making backups/restores faster and simpler through reducing the size of primary data stores - archiving, according to the observe is not the answer to data protection.

* The average size of primary data stores among the UK respondent was 437TB while among USA respondent the average size was lower at 35TB This may be explained by the agency of figures showing that only 33 by means of cent of UK respondents have an archive of greater than 1TB while the corresponding figure for the USA is a a great quantity [i]or[/i] amount of higher 48 per cent, suggesting greater succes at identifying data that can be remov from expensive primary storage.

Tony Cotterill, CEO of BridgeHead Software, which directioned the surveys, said "Generally, the respective figures in each view are within shouting distance of each other, lending validity to the review But while there are interesting differences between the sum of two units markets, there are also worrying similarities - notably the confusion above the different functions, execution and views of backup and archiving.

'Not Appropriate'

"Too many respondent in the couple countries are using backup software to create archives, which just isn't appropriate. An archive involves indexing easy in mind so it can be retrieved later using a keyword search, anything other is just backup. The fact that business continuity and disaster recuperation heads the list of drivers for archiving in one as well as the other countries reinforces the conclusion that many family are confused," he added.

* The findings are part of a broader contemplate entitled The ILMAudit, conducted by means of BridgeHead Software during 2005. above 165 respondents from North America comprised of senior IT directors and managers from SME and large organisations across many industries, including finance, regulation manufacturing, military and services. above 300 IT managers and directors took part in the survey; they came from medium to large organisations in the UK

Contact BridgeHead Software. Web: www.BridgeHeadSoftware.com

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