Cloud Storage – spend less for DR and recover faster

TwinStrata, Inc. has announced the results of its 2013 Cloud Storage and Disaster Recovery survey. Conducted between May to August 2013, the report analyzes responses from 288 IT personnel. The results indicate widespread acceptance of cloud storage and demonstrate the tangible impact cloud storage can have on disaster recovery strategies.

Among the key findings:
• Sixty percent of all users claim to recover applications and data in just 24 hours after a site disaster. An additional 19 percent estimated it would take less than three days. The remaining 20 percent (one in five) estimated it would take more than three days to recover both data and applications.
• Nearly half (48 percent) of organizations that rely solely on cloud storage for backup and disaster recovery (DR) indicated they can recover both data and applications in just “a couple hours.” Only 30 percent of organizations that do not use cloud storage for DR at all claim the same recovery speed.
• Similarly, 47 percent of organizations that do not use any cloud storage for disaster recovery actually spent more than $100,000 annually on DR services – compared to only 27 percent of organizations that rely solely on cloud storage for DR.
• Having a virtualized environment also made a significant difference to recovery time objectives – 68 percent of fully virtualized companies claimed site recovery in “a couple hours.”
• One in three organizations continued to rely on onsite backups or offsite tapes as their only backup/DR strategy.
• Almost two-thirds (63 percent) of respondents use or plan to use cloud storage for backup/DR.
• Mid-market organizations that estimate one-day shut-down costs between $25-$500k were the most vulnerable to disaster, with 28 percent estimating it would take more than three days to recover data and applications Only 16 percent of all other companies estimated the same.

“Last week’s announcement that Nirvanix is shutting down has caused many organizations to question whether cloud storage is worth the perceived risk,” said Nicos Vekiarides, CEO of TwinStrata. “Our survey clearly shows that the benefits of cloud storage are far too compelling to ignore, particularly from a disaster recovery perspective. With the right technology and migration plan in place, customers can recover from any disaster – even the loss of their cloud storage provider.”