Features - Enterprise Data Insights:

IT PROS PREFER PAIN TO TROUBLESHOOTING BACKUPS

A recent survey of qualified information technology professionals determined that more than 90 percent believe that tracking and reporting on the performance of their corporate backup efforts is an absolute must, yet most admitted to resorting to manual or other crude methods to accomplish the task. The survey, conducted on behalf of Bocada Inc, a leading provider of scalable, enterprise data protection reporting and compliance solutions, also revealed some startling feedback about how IT pros feel about the headaches of backup. Close to 20 percent said they would rather "shave their head with a cheese grater," while 16 percent would prefer to "chew on tinfoil," and an additional 12 percent would rather eat "day old sushi," than hunt down sources of backup error and inefficiency.

Backup Failures Need To Be Understood

"The IT pros have spoken, and they're telling us that it's a requirement to have vital visibility in to the root causes of data backup failures," said Drake Pruitt, Bocada's vice president of marketing. "We're not surprised by the results of the survey, but the level of frustration and futility expressed by the respondents is far greater than we expected."

Bocada also asked survey subjects to rank their feelings toward the loss of various personal and professional items. Seventy-eight percent responded by saying that they would be most upset by the loss of one of their customer information databases, compared to the loss of their own wedding band (36 percent) or field-level tickets to game seven of the World Series (32 percent).

"While there is some humor behind these responses, we think they reveal the true feelings of the people who work with data and data backups," said Pruitt. "The simple fact that these people would choose to lose their wedding band or World Series tickets instead of one of their company's databases speaks volumes about the importance placed on corporate data. It's our job to make sure that everyone has a better understanding of the vulnerability of data protection systems."

The full results of the Bocada online survey, conducted during the week of Oct. 13-19, were released at the Storage Networking World conference in Orlando, Fla.