In the fourth edition of the "Global Data Protection Index 2020 Snapshot" study, Dell Technologies measures and evaluates the maturity of data protection strategies and how well companies worldwide are protected against data loss. For the new study, 1,000 IT decision-makers worldwide were surveyed at the end of 2019, including in Germany. The survey shows huge data growth in companies: They managed an average of 13.5 petabytes (PB) of data in 2019 - almost 40% more than a year ago (9.7 PB). Compared to 2016, when 1.45 PB of data was stored in companies, this represents growth of 831%.

A major threat to this data is the increasing number of disruptive events such as cyber attacks and system failures. While 76% of the companies surveyed were affected by such events in 2018, this was already the case for 82% in 2019. Companies that use data security solutions from multiple providers were particularly vulnerable. They were affected about twice as often by incidents that restrict data access. Nevertheless, more and more of them are taking precisely this approach. 80% of respondents stated that they use solutions from two or more providers.

Outages will become more expensive

The costs incurred by companies as a result of these disruptive events are rising at an alarming rate. The estimated annual costs for downtime in 2019 amounted to an average of around 719,000 euros. In 2018, they were still around 467,000 euros. The estimated average costs for data loss also increased, amounting to around 900,000 euros in 2019. In 2018, it was still around 883,000 euros. These costs have risen sharply, especially in companies that use security solutions from more than one provider. The costs caused by downtime almost doubled for them, while the costs due to data loss almost quintupled.

Almost all of the companies surveyed are investing in new technologies such as cloud-native applications (58%), artificial intelligence and machine learning (53%), SaaS applications (51%), 5G and cloud edge infrastructures (49%) and Internet of Things and endpoint solutions (36%). Almost three quarters of respondents (71%) believe that these technologies will further complicate data security. 61% even believe that new technologies pose a real risk to data security. More than half of the companies that use such technologies find it difficult to find adequate security solutions for them.

Their concerns about adequate data security continue to grow as respondents think about future business needs. 81% fear that their existing solutions will not be able to meet all of them. In particular, they have doubts about full recovery of data after a cyber-attack (69%) or data loss incident (64%), compliance with data protection legislation (62%) and meeting service level targets for backup and recovery (62%).

Data security and the cloud are closely intertwined

When companies introduce new business applications, they prefer cloud approaches. For example, 43% use public clouds as a deployment environment, 42% hybrid clouds and 39% private clouds. They see better performance (61%), increased security (59%) and more reliable data protection (56%) as the biggest advantages of public clouds.

Accordingly, the companies surveyed expect data security providers to provide effective solutions for these environments. For example, 85% find it very important that providers can protect cloud-native applications with their solutions. Furthermore, as more and more data flows through edge environments, many respondents prefer cloud-based backups. 62% see private clouds and 49% public clouds as an approach to managing and protecting data that originates at edge locations.

Data is added value

Furthermore, the study results show the growing awareness of the importance of data and its increasing use to generate revenue. In the current survey, 80% of respondents stated that they appreciate the value of their data and already use it to create value or plan to do so in the future. In the 2018 survey, this was still the case for 74%.

"Data is the lifeblood of companies and the key to their digital transformation," says Christoph Storzum, Sales Director for Data Protection Solutions at Dell Technologies. "Resilient, reliable and modern data security strategies are therefore essential today. Only on this basis can companies make better and faster decisions and avoid costly outages."