Zerto Partners with ESG to Reveal ‘Cloud Data Protection is the New Norm’

Zerto released data stating that cloud is top of mind for many IT organizations, and it is “very well-perceived in minds of data protection decision makers.” The study, conducted by ESG, reveals that 87% of respondents noted that cloud computing has had a positive impact on their data protection strategies. This indicates that more organizations are recognizing the perceived cost and resource benefits of moving to the cloud.

The new e-book, “The Evolution of Data Protection Cloud Strategies,” report shows momentum is building among organizations extending on-premises data protection environments with cloud backup target solutions. Thirty-eight percent said they want to extend their existing backup solution to the cloud (up from 33% in 2019) as the adoption and use of backup as a service (BaaS) has continued to increase over the last year. BaaS is currently the most widely used approach with more than two-thirds of organizations using these services. Organizations are placing stringent Recovery Point Objectives (RPO) requirements with more than one in five expecting continuous data protection-like capabilities.

However, what remains of concern is that many organizations incorrectly assume that SaaS applications already offer backup as a standard and are unaware they remain at risk from accidental deletions, compliance errors, limited recoverability, and ransomware. The research revealed that this SaaS data protection disconnect is not going away with 35% of IT teams still relying solely on their SaaS vendors for data protection, viewing them as being responsible for protecting their SaaS-resident application data.

This figure remains on par with 2019 results and indicates that there are a significant number of organizations that still don’t use a third-party data protection solution or service. This should be cause for concern, considering that everything an organization stores in the cloud-emails, files, chat history, sales data, etc.-is its responsibility and is subject to the same recoverability challenges and requirements as traditional data. In fact, only 13% of survey respondents see themselves as solely responsible for protecting all their SaaS-resident application data.

“Incorporating public cloud services into a sound data protection and disaster recovery strategy is now firmly established for IT leaders that are tasked with ensuring 24/7/365 availability,” said Deepak Verma, vice president of product management at Zerto. “Many organizations have found, at their cost, that legacy technologies are simply inadequate for ensuring quick recovery with minimal data loss. When adopting a complete data protection strategy, it’s vital that SaaS-resident data is not left on the side-lines with the mistaken belief that protection is inherently part of the service.”

“This research reveals important new insight from organizations that are leveraging and deploying data protection solutions to and in the cloud and how they utilize cloud services as part of their data protection strategy today,” commented Christophe Bertrand, senior analyst and research author at ESG. “There is no doubt that cloud data protection is not only mainstream but also represents the new normal for organizations who need to select the most effective solutions for their increasingly cloud-centric infrastructure.”

• To download the full research e-book, please click here.
• Join ZertoCON to view the session “Conversation with ESG on the State of Cloud Data Protection.”

Survey Methodology
ESG surveyed 381 mid-market and enterprise IT professionals who are familiar with and/or responsible for data protection technology decisions for their organization. Respondents are from North America (US & Canada.) Survey was conducted in January 2021.