Enterprise Strategy Group Getting to the bigger truth. Research Report Abstract: Data Protection Cloud Strategies Considerations for Organizations Seeking to Utilize Cloud Services as Part of Their Data Protection Strategy By Jason Buffington, ESG Principal Analyst With Bill Lundell, Director, Syndicated Research; Monya Keane, Senior Research Analyst; and Jennifer Gahm, Senior Project Manager December 2016
Introduction Research Objectives It is nearly impossible to have a serious IT transformation discussion today without considering the cloud. However, it can be a struggle to determine the best way(s) to leverage the cloud(s) for primary and secondary data protection. In fact, there appears to be at least seven convergence points relating to how clouds can benefit data protection (see Figure 1). Figure 1. The Seven Convergence Points of Data Protection and Cloud Services Archiving 1 and disaster recovery-as-a-service (DRaaS) 2 are predominantly covered in other ESG research reports, while outsourced management as-a-service (MoBaaS) was determined to be out of the scope of this research effort. Each of the remaining four scenarios connect with protecting data to a cloud or protecting data in and from a cloud. This report focuses on those approaches. They are: Backup-as-a-service (BaaS) Storage-as-a-service used for data protection (STaaS/DP) Protection of infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) Protection of software-as-a-service (SaaS) In conducting this research, ESG hoped to answer questions in two main focus areas: 1. When should an organization discard its on-premises backup solution and move to BaaS? Both BaaS and STaaS/DP will get the data to the cloud, and both can also leverage onsite infrastructure. Which way makes the most sense for any given organization? 2. If data now lives in the cloud, how do organizations protect it? They have choices: Run their infrastructure oldschool style but on someone else s metal (i.e., take the IaaS-hosted VM approach), or completely embrace the cloud and go with SaaS. When it comes to protecting IaaS data versus protecting SaaS data, that data is now in the cloud in both cases. How should that data be protected? 1 Source: ESG Research Report, Long-term Retention Strategies, to be published. 2 Source: ESG Research Report, The Evolving Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Landscape, February 2016.
Research Methodology To gather data for this report, ESG conducted a comprehensive online survey of IT professionals familiar with and/or responsible for data protection technology decisions for their organization, specifically around those data protection and production technologies that may leverage cloud services as part of the solution, in North America (United States and Canada) between April 26, 2016 and May 10, 2016. All respondents were provided an incentive to complete the survey in the form of cash awards and/or cash equivalents. After filtering out unqualified respondents, removing duplicate responses, and screening the remaining completed responses (on a number of criteria) for data integrity, we were left with a final total sample of 370 IT professionals. Please see the Respondent Demographics section of this report for more information on these respondents. Note: Totals in figures and tables throughout this report may not add up to 100% due to rounding.
Respondent Demographics The data presented in this report is based on a survey of 370 qualified respondents. Figures 31-36 detail the demographics of the respondent base at both an individual and organizational level. Respondents by Current Responsibility Respondents current responsibility in shown in Figure 1. Figure 1. Respondents by Current Responsibility Which of the following best describes your current responsibility within your organization? (Percent of respondents, N=370) IT staff, 7% IT management, 45% Senior IT management (e.g., CIO, VP of IT, Director of IT, etc.), 48% Respondent Organizations by Total Number of Employees The number of employees in respondents organizations is shown in Figure 2. Figure 2. Respondents by Number of Employees How many total employees does your organization have worldwide? (Percent of respondents, N=370) 20,000 or more, 19% 100 to 499, 21% 10,000 to 19,999, 8% 5,000 to 9,999, 10% 500 to 999, 16% 2,500 to 4,999, 11% 1,000 to 2,499, 14%
Respondent Organizations by Industry Respondents were asked to identify their organization s primary industry. In total, ESG received completed, qualified respondents from individuals in 19 distinct vertical industries, plus an Other category. Respondents were then grouped into the broader categories shown in Figure 3. Figure 3. Respondents by Industry What is your organization s primary industry? (Percent of respondents, N=370) Business Services (accounting, consulting, legal, etc.), 7% Health Care, 8% Government (Federal/National, State/Local), 12% Communications & Media, 3% Retail/Wholesale, 5% Respondent Organizations by Annual Revenue Other, 10% Education, 14% Manufacturing, 24% Financial (banking, securities, insurance), 18% Respondent organizations annual revenue is shown in Figure 4. Figure 4. Respondents by Annual Revenue What is your organization s approximate total annual revenue ($US)? (Percent of respondents, N=370) 20% 10% 9% 13% 12% 10% 6% 10% 10% Less than $50 $50 million to $100 million million $99.999 million to $499.999 million $500 million to $999.999 million $1 billion to $5 billion to $4.999 billion$9.999 billion $10 billion to $20 billion or $19.999 more billion Not applicable (e.g., public sector, nonprofit)
Respondent Organizations Production Server Infrastructure The total number of production physical and virtual servers supported by the IT organization is shown in Figure 5. Figure 5. Respondents by Number of Production Servers Approximately how many production servers both physical servers (not including hosts) and virtual servers are supported worldwide by your IT organization? (Percent of respondents, N=370) 24% Total physical production servers Total production virtual machines 19% 18% 17% 14% 15% 13% 13% 8% 8% 7% 5% 6% 7% 6% 7% 6% 4% 1% 1% Less than 25 25 to 49 50 to 100 101 to 250 251 to 500 501 to 1,000 1,001 to 2,500 2,501 to 5,000 More than 5,000 Don t know Respondent Organizations Total Amount of Disk-based Storage Capacity Respondent organizations total amount of disk-based storage capacity is shown in Figure 6. Figure 6. Respondents by Total Disk-based Installed Capacity To the best of your knowledge, what is your organization s total installed capacity associated with disk-based storage systems? (Percent of respondents, N=370) 15% 15% 14% 9% 10% 9% 7% 6% 7% 4% 3% Less than 25 TB 25 TB to 49 TB 50 TB to 99 TB 100 TB to 249 TB 250 TB to 499 TB 500 TB to 999 TB 1 PB to 2.499 PB 2.5 PB to 4.999 PB 5 PB to 9.999 PB 10 PB or more Don t know
Contents List of Figures... 3 Executive Summary... 4 Introduction... 5 Research Objectives... 5 Research Findings... 6 Usage Trends for Cloud-based Data Protection Services... 6 Who Is Driving Data Protection Cloud Adoption and Usage?... 10 Backup-as-a-service (BaaS) Usage and Considerations... 12 For Most Organizations, Cloud Is Not a Tape Killer... 16 BaaS Considerations for Large Data Restores... 17 Storage-as-a-service/Data Protection Usage and Considerations... 19 Making the Choice Between BaaS and STaaS/DP... 20 An Important Note to Vendors Selling Offerings on Both Sides of the Decision... 21 Protecting Servers Hosted within Infrastructure-as-a-service Offerings... 22 Protecting Data within a SaaS Offering... 25 Conclusion... 28 Research Implications for Data Protection Vendors and Providers... 28 Research Implications for IT and Data Protection Professionals... 29 Research Methodology... 30 Respondent Demographics... 31 Respondents by Current Responsibility... 31 Respondent Organizations by Total Number of Employees... 31 Respondent Organizations by Industry... 32 Respondent Organizations by Annual Revenue... 32 Respondent Organizations Production Server Infrastructure... 33 Respondent Organizations Total Amount of Disk-based Storage Capacity... 33
List of Figures Research Report: Data Protection Cloud Strategies Figure 1. The Seven Convergence Points of Data Protection and Cloud Services... 5 Figure 2. Use of Cloud-based Data Protection Services... 6 Figure 3. Cloud-based Data Protection Deployment Drivers... 7 Figure 4. Factors Preventing More Pervasive Usage or Initial Adoption of Cloud-based Data Protection... 8 Figure 5. Realized Benefits of Cloud-based Data Protection Services... 9 Figure 6. Groups/Roles Involved with Evaluating and Influencing Cloud-based Data Protection Decisions... 10 Figure 7. Groups/Roles with Day-to-day Management and Operations Responsibility for Cloud-based Data Protection.. 11 Figure 8. Relationship Between Cloud Computing and Data Protection... 11 Figure 9. Current or Expected Data Backup Process for BaaS Deployments... 12 Figure 10. Current or Expected Scope of BaaS Deployment... 13 Figure 11. Current or Potential D2D2C Users More Likely to Protect Data Center Servers with BaaS... 13 Figure 12. Most Important Characteristics of a BaaS Solution... 14 Figure 13. Downtime Tolerance for Applications Protected by BaaS Services... 15 Figure 14. Frequency of Making Copies of Data for the Workloads Currently Protected by BaaS Service... 15 Figure 15. Length of Time Current BaaS Users Plan to Store Data within a BaaS Service, by Maximum Length of Time Backup Data Is Retained... 16 Figure 16. Number of Times BaaS Users Had to Recover Data from a BaaS Service Provider within Last Year... 17 Figure 17. Were RTOs Met When BaaS Users Had to Recover Data from a BaaS Provider?... 18 Figure 18. How Current BaaS Provider Facilitates Bulk Restores... 18 Figure 19. Most Important Characteristics of a STaaS/DP Solution... 19 Figure 20. Primary Factor Leading Organizations to Choose BaaS Instead of Adding Storage to Existing On-premises Backup Solution... 20 Figure 21. Primary Factor Driving STaaS/DP Instead of a BaaS Solution... 21 Figure 22. Approach to Protecting Workloads Running on IaaS... 22 Figure 23. Data Protection Technologies Applied to Virtual Machines Running on IaaS... 23 Figure 24. Expected Primary Method of Protecting Public Cloud-hosted VMs... 24 Figure 25. Groups/Roles Involved with Choosing Data Protection Mechanisms When Protecting Hosted VMs... 24 Figure 26. Policy for Use of Cloud-based Business Applications... 25 Figure 27. Approach to Protecting SaaS-based Application Data... 26 Figure 28. Most Important Features When Choosing a Backup Solution for SaaS-based Applications... 26 Figure 29. Groups/Roles Involved with Choosing SaaS Data Protection Mechanisms... 27 Figure 30. How Data Protection Solutions Used to Protect SaaS-based Applications Are Funded... 27 Figure 31. Respondents by Current Responsibility... 31 Figure 32. Respondents by Number of Employees... 31 Figure 33. Respondents by Industry... 32 Figure 34. Respondents by Annual Revenue... 32 Figure 35. Respondents by Number of Production Servers... 33 Figure 36. Respondents by Total Disk-based Installed Capacity... 33
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