Organisations in Asia
Pacific & Japan (APJ) are managing close to five times the amount of data
they did in 2016, and yet only 13% of businesses are data protection “leaders”,
according to the third Dell EMC Global Data Protection Index
in collaboration with Vanson Bourne.
The research, which
surveyed 2,200 IT decision makers from both public and private organisations
with 250+ employees across 18 countries and 11 industries, reveals the state of
data protection amongst organisations in Australia, Japan, South Korea, India,
and Singapore, amidst the current explosive growth of data in APJ.
Specifically, the Index reported a large increase in the average amount of data
managed – from 1.68 petabytes (PB) in 2016 to 8.13PB in 2018 – and a
corresponding increase in business awareness of the value of data. In fact, 90%
of respondents see the potential value of data and 35% are already monetising
their data.
However, the Index also
found that despite an impressive jump in data protection “leaders” (from 1% to
13%) and “adopters” (from 8% to 53%) since 2016, most respondents continue to
face challenges in implementing the right data protection measures to address
the rapid growth of data and the rising adoption of emerging technologies.
The
State of Data Protection in APJ
Disruptions and data
loss incidents are occurring more frequently than the global average amongst
APJ organisations, underscoring the urgent need for data management and
protection in the region. 80% of APJ respondents have experienced some type of
disruption over the last 12 months compared to the global average of 76%,
amongst which 32% were unable to recover data using their existing data
protection solution.
Although unplanned
system downtime is more prevalent, data loss has proven to be far more
expensive for APJ organisations. On average, 20 hours of downtime in the last
12 months cost businesses US$494,869, whilst companies that lost data, lost
2.04 terabytes on average with a price tag of US$939,703. Additionally, the likelihood
of disruption has almost doubled over time for the affected companies in
several areas. The Index revealed a sharp increase in the number of reported
delays in time-to-market, loss of customers, and loss of repeat business, as
key consequences of data loss and system downtime in 2018, compared to 2016.
The good news is 9 in 10
businesses recognise the value of data, and 88% in APJ said they take data
protection more seriously for categories of data that have the greatest
monetary value. However, the state of data protection in APJ is still in its
infancy. More than 6 in 10 (64%) have yet to monetise data assets, and the
majority of APJ organisations are still categorised as “laggards”, “evaluators”
or “adopters” in terms of their data protection maturity, as opposed to being
“leaders”.
“Today, much of an
organisation’s business value is inextricably linked to data. In many respects,
APJ companies are in a unique position to become truly data-driven, given the
sheer volume of data this region produces,” said Alex Lei, Vice President, Data
Protection Solutions, Dell EMC, APJ. “The critical building block for success
is a robust data protection framework which is essential to gaining customers’
trust.”
Data
Growth and Emerging Technologies Pose Challenges
APJ businesses are
facing challenges in selecting the right infrastructure and measures in the
face of rapid data growth and emerging technologies adoption. The majority (94%)
of respondents encounter at least one barrier in relation to data protection.
The top three challenges in APJ include:
The inability to keep track of
and protect all data because of growth of DevOps and cloud development –
46% agree
The complexity of configuring
and operating data protection software/hardware – 45.6% agree
The
lack of data protection solutions for emerging technologies – 43.4% agree
For those struggling to
find adequate data protection solutions for newer technologies, more than half
(54%) said they could not find suitable data protection solutions for
artificial intelligence and machine learning data, followed by cloud-native
applications (49%) and IoT (40%).
The challenges presented
by emerging technologies and the rapid growth of data in APJ are just beginning
to take shape. As such, only 18%believe
current data protection solutions will be able to meet all future business
challenges.
“Emerging technologies,
powered by data, are beginning to yield very real business benefits for this
region. Organisations looking to accelerate their digital transformation must
look to enable and protect their data as it moves across their network – from
the edge, to their core business, right through to their cloud. Companies’ data
strategies are becoming increasingly more complex as they work to meet the data
management, governance, security and accessibility requirements across a multi-cloud
infrastructure, off and on premise, private and public cloud. Challenges aside,
the insights and data monetisation opportunities are infinite for organisations
ready to transform,” added Lei.
Cloud
Is Changing the Data Protection Landscape
Cloud technology is
becoming an integral component of the data protection landscape in APJ.
According to the Index, public cloud use has increased from 27% of the total IT
environment in respondents’ organisations in 2016 to 41% in 2018. Nearly all
(99%) organisations using public cloud are leveraging it as part of their data
protection strategy. The top use cases for data protection within the public
cloud include backup/snapshot services to protect workloads and cloud-enabled
data protection software.
The findings also
suggest that protecting the growing amount of data in the cloud is a concern
area for business leaders in APJ. More than 6 in 10 considered scalability
options of data protection solutions important in anticipation of the
inevitable boom of cloud workloads.
Regulation
Is Low on the Priority List
The Index also reveals
that compliance to data privacy regulations like the European Union’s General
Data Protection Regulation is not amongst the key concerns for APJ organisations.
Regulation compliance was ranked sixth in the list of top data protection
challenges by only 36% of respondents.
This sentiment is
beginning to translate into reality as only around one-third (34%) felt very
confident that their organisation’s current data protection infrastructure and
processes are compliant with regional regulations.
Supporting Quote
Customer quote
“An integral part of
providing a great customer experience to our customers is protecting their
data,” says James Mystakidis, Group Executive Macquarie Telecom. “Today, data
requires layers of robust protection – from backup and recovery to cyber
resilience and compliancy. Having one technology partner we can trust with
every kilobyte of data is absolutely critical for both us and our customers.”
Additional Resources
For a detailed view of the Global Data Protection
Index, including global and regional infographics, please visit www.dellemc.com/gdpi.
About
the Dell EMC Global Data Protection Index
Dell
EMC commissioned Vanson Bourne for the third Global Data Protection Index,
surveying 2,200 IT decision makers from both public and private companies with
250+ employees across 11 industries and 18 countries about the maturity of
their data protection strategies. Vanson Bourne conducted the survey between
September and November 2018. The countries surveyed include US, UK, France and
Germany with 200 respondents each, and Canada, Mexico, Brazil, South Africa,
UAE, Italy, Switzerland, Netherlands, Australia, Japan, China, South Korea,
India and Singapore with 100 respondents each.
About Dell Technologies
Dell Technologies is a
unique family of businesses that provides the essential infrastructure for organisations
to build their digital future, transform IT and protect their most important
asset, information. The company services customers of all sizes across 180
countries – ranging from 99 percent of the Fortune 500 to individual consumers
– with the industry’s most comprehensive and innovative portfolio from the edge
to the core to the cloud.
