Asigra Inc., the Cloud Backup, Recovery and Restore (BURR) software provider since 1986, has presented facts and figures highlighting the growth in SaaS and Cloud-based business application services and the need for more comprehensive data protection strategies to ensure business continuity and compliance. As organisations migrate to the Cloud, IT professionals are being challenged to protect online application data in a way that is fast, efficient, secure and compliant. The consolidation of Cloud-based application backup data, in addition to other corporate data assets, into a single centralised backup repository ensure these challenges will be met.
According to International Data Corporation (IDC), "the Cloud software market reached $22.9 billion in revenue in 2011, a 30.9% YoY growth rate and is expected to reach $67.3 billion by 2016 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 24%. SaaS delivery will significantly outpace traditional software product delivery, growing nearly five times faster than the software market as a whole and becoming the significant growth driver to all functional software markets. By 2016, the Cloud software model will account for $1 of every $5 spent on software ."
Customer Resource Management (CRM) is leading all other enterprise application areas in net new SaaS/Cloud application deployments, with the majority of on-premise replacements being in North America and Europe. Perceived lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) continues to be the dominant reason enterprises are considering SaaS adoption, with 50% of respondents in 2012 mentioning this as the primary factor in their decision.
In a recent qualitative survey of enterprises commissioned by Asigra and performed by the customer metrics and research organization, TechValidate, results revealed that enterprises have endorsed SaaS and the Cloud as a viable business application platform, with 55% of the organizations surveyed using Salesforce.com today and 74% expecting the use of other SaaS/Cloud-based applications to increase. Of the Cloud-based CRM applications in use, Salsforce.com showed the highest level of deployment at 23% followed by Microsoft Dynamics at 12%, Oracle at 12%, SAP at 8% and Sugar CRM at 4%. Of those same respondents, however, only 22% indicated that SaaS/Cloud-based application data is incorporated into their corporate backup infrastructure.
Of the backup and recovery solutions that organizations have in place, most rely on a mix of point solutions. The TechValidate survey showed that 66% of those surveyed have some form of physical device backup solution. 41% use a virtual machine backup solution while 38% use tape backup, 24% have a Cloud/online backup solution and 7% rely on USB hard drives for backup. When asked what attributes they consider most important in a backup solution when protecting Cloud-based application data, 68% said a comprehensive backup solution that protects both Cloud and on-premise applications is desired, 52% said the solution must be fast and highly secure while 10% indicated a stand-alone Cloud application backup solution would meet their needs.
Concerns over the storage of data in the Cloud were not surprising. Of those surveyed, 21% cited data security as the biggest concern while the location of where the data was stored came in at 7%. Backup related costs, user-related data loss and service provider stability all ranked at 3%. 59% said that all of these were concerns with respect to storing data in the Cloud.
With the latest generation of technology from Asigra, the company is targeting backup and recovery across physical, virtual, endpoint and SaaS/Cloud operating environments. The hardware and software agnostic solution provides a single end-to-end data protection suite that can be deployed as a public, private and/or hybrid cloud. Asigra Cloud Backup v12 coverage includes storage, servers, desktops and the broadest range of mobile endpoint devices including laptops, tablets and smartphones, making it ideal for mixed operating and multi-device applications. Version 12 also ensures the highest level of data security with AES 256 encryption of data in-flight and at-rest, certified by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) as FIPS 140-2 compliant.
"While SaaS/Cloud applications have introduced higher levels of simplicity and value to organizations, they have also altered the way IT professionals must architect their backup environments," said Tracy Staniland, VP, Corporate Marketing, Asigra. "As a forward-looking player in the backup and recovery space, Asigra allows organisations to maintain confidence and control by centralising all backup data into a single storage pool for greater accountability and compliance. IT professionals continuing their march to the Cloud can look toward Asigra for continued leadership in this area."
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