Acronis Survey Reveals Disaster Recovery Failing to Catch Up with Virtualization, Cloud

U.S. SMBs relying on inadequate backup and disaster recovery methods

Woburn, MA, Feb. 14, 2012 –/BackupReview.info/– According to a new survey conducted by Acronis, small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) in the U.S. are failing to adapt their disaster recovery operations to new virtualized and cloud-based IT environments. Although both virtualization and the cloud are on the rise, U.S. SMBs are relying on outdated technologies and methodologies to protect their data in the wake of a disaster.

The 2012 Acronis Disaster Recovery Index revealed that 89 percentof U.S. SMBs already have some portion of their IT infrastructure virtualized. In addition, U.S. SMBs predict that 31 percent of their servers will be virtualized by the end of the year.

However, businesses aren’t protecting their virtualized infrastructure adequately, with only 41 percent backing up their virtual machines as often as their physical ones. Almost half (48 percent) only backup their virtual machines on a weekly or monthly basis.

Cloud adoption is on the rise as well, but isn’t being implemented enough for backup and disaster recovery. Thirty-six percent of U.S. SMBs have more than half of their infrastructure in the cloud, but only 24 percent are using the cloud for backup and disaster recovery. In fact, 29 percent did not have an offsite backup and disaster recovery strategy at all.

“Clearly there is a disconnect between new models of infrastructure and the backup and disaster recovery methods that should accompany them,” said Izzy Azeri, senior vice president and general manager at Acronis Americas. “Virtualized and cloud-based servers require the same degree of protection as physical ones. New technology and updated contingency planning are the keys to bringing disaster recovery up to speed with today’s diversified infrastructures.”

Businesses have high hopes for virtualization and the cloud. Forty percent of U.S. SMBs agreed that migrating to a virtualized and/or cloud-based environment would help ensure their backup and disaster recovery procedures run more smoothly. Additionally, 76 percent agree that the best way to improve backup and disaster recovery would be to have an integrated (physical, virtual, cloud) solution. It’s clear that as the IT infrastructure landscape continues to grow in complexity, there is a rising demand for backup and disaster recovery solutions that can protect data from increasingly unpredictable threats.

Other interesting virtualization and cloud findings from the 2012 Acronis Disaster Recovery Index include:

• U.S. SMBs are losing on average $388,426 a year due to downtime;
• SMBs’ biggest challenge in using the cloud for backup and disaster recovery was the complex movement of data between physical, virtual and cloud environments (75 percent);
• 59 percent of U.S. SMBs use separate backup and recovery solutions for their physical and virtual environments.

The survey was conducted by the Ponemon Institute across 18 countries in September and October 2011. Over 6,000 IT practitioners were surveyed in small- to mid-market organisations with no more than 1,000 seats.

About Acronis
Acronis (acronis.com) is a leading provider of easy-to-use disaster recovery and data protection solutions for physical, virtual and cloud environments. Its patented disk imaging technology enables corporations, SMBs and consumers to protect their digital assets. With Acronis’ disaster recovery, deployment and migration software, users protect their digital information, maintain business continuity and reduce downtime. Acronis software is sold in more than 90 countries and available in up to 14 languages. Follow Acronis on Twitter: twitter.com/acronis.

Acronis® and the Acronis logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of Acronis Inc. in the United States and/or other countries.

Contact:
Lucy Millington
Acronis.com
781-782-9181
LucyM[at]acronis.com
http://www.acronis.com

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