Veritas Technologies, a global leader in enterprise data protection and software-defined storage (storage software), has released the third edition of its Databerg Middle East report. Key findings highlight that UAE-based enterprises surveyed are failing to manage Dark Data and Redundant, Obsolete or Trivial (ROT) data, which is slowing cloud adoption. Making up 88% of a company’s total data, dark and ROT data were a significant contributor to respondents failing to meet their cloud migration. While cloud storage adoption was forecast to be 55% last year, the actual recovery this year was just 45%.
The report, which involved 100 IT leaders across key business sectors in the UAE, focuses on identifying the prevalence of “databergs” – reflecting the data culture of organisations engaged in data exploitation in the UAE. The report shows that the volume of data that is either dark or ROT has remained consistently high over the past three years, highlighting that the businesses surveyed have not done enough to significantly improve the visibility or management of their rapidly growing data.
Despite the huge financial and reputational concerns surrounding dark and ROT data storage, the report highlights a decline in confidence in cloud storage, with just over half (53%) of respondents believing that cloud migration can lead to cost savings.
Three key issues currently slowing the adoption of cloud data storage in the UAE among organizations surveyed are:
- Poor data management due to slow data deletion – deletion rates have slowed overall between 2018 and 2019, with only 15% of organisations deleting data weekly. This is despite the fact that the public sector was found to have a strong monthly deletion discipline, making them one of the most efficient sectors
- 49% of UAE organizations use tape or primary disks for storage
- Nearly two-thirds (63%) of organizations waste money on orphaned data, while only 33% of UAE organizations have a regular process to recover and redeploy orphaned capacity
As a result, many of the UAE organizations surveyed have high levels of risk around ransomware, with around a quarter of businesses saying it could take them a week to recover from a ransomware attack. Only 55% of businesses are prepared for ransomware attacks and have backup and recovery plans in place , claiming they are able to resolve an attack in 24 hours or less.
According to the report, retail and consumer organizations are more prepared for ransomware, reporting the ability to recover data in as little as two hours, while public sector and utility companies said data recovery could take up to a week. This could seriously jeopardize critical and utilities in the UAE, disrupting the daily lives of UAE residents.
Johnny Karam, Vice President, Emerging Markets, Veritas, said: “Data is central to digital transformation in the UAE, yet our study reveals that businesses are crying out for a better and simpler way to manage their data to reap the benefits of the cloud. Unfortunately, UAE businesses surveyed are failing to realize the true potential of the cloud due to poor data management, creating a vicious cycle of rising IT costs and missed opportunities. Embracing a hybrid cloud model will allow businesses to better manage their budgets, while benefiting from improved backup and ransomware protection capabilities. In addition, prioritizing the management and protection of valuable data, while illuminating dark data and erasing Rot data, will help increase operational efficiency and transform their businesses".
The study also reveals that over half of UAE companies surveyed prefer a private cloud strategy. In fact, the popularity of the “private cloud first” strategy has increased over the past year at the expense of all other strategies, including hybrid cloud, public cloud and on-premises. Only 17% of respondents said they deploy all workloads in the public cloud, while 27% maintain a mix of hybrid, private and public clouds on-premises.
“With the UAE committed to becoming the smartest city in the world by 2020, our research highlights the critical need for effective data management and protection to achieve this ambitious goal. In order to capture real value from their data, UAE businesses need a data management strategy that helps them abstract complexity from environments and improve visibility, in turn drawing tangible and actionable insights from their data. Anything less will not only limit transformation efforts but could also have serious financial and reputational implications for businesses,” added Karam.
