Dell EMC has announced the results of the third Global Data Protection Index revealing an explosive growth rate of data of 569% and a jump in data protection “adopters” of nearly 50 percentage points since 2016.
The research, which surveyed 2,200 IT decision makers from both public and private organizations with more than 250 employees across 18 countries and 11 industries, provides a look at the state of data protection and the maturity of data protection strategies.
Specifically, the index uncovered an increase in the average amount of data managed—from 1.45PB in 2016 to 9.70PB in 2018—and a high awareness of the value of data.
According to the research, 92% of respondents see the potential value of data and 36% are already monetizing their data. While this acknowledgement is positive, most respondents are struggling to properly protect their data.
The research also showed that cloud is changing the data protection landscape. Public cloud use has increased from 28% of the total IT environment in respondents’ organizations in 2016 to 40% in 2018, on average. Nearly all (98%) organizations using public cloud are also leveraging it as part of their data protection infrastructure.
Data privacy regulations, some of which are relatively new, are also becoming a focal point for data protection. Regulation compliance was ranked in the top three data protection challenges by 41% of respondents.
Of those surveyed, 76% have experienced a disruption in the last 12 months, and 27% experienced irreparable data loss, nearly double the 14% in 2016.
More than one-third (35%) of respondents are very confident that their data protection infrastructure is compliant with existing regulations, but only 16% believe their data protection solutions will meet all future challenges.
Additionally, nearly half (45%) of those surveyed are struggling to find suitable data protection solutions for newer technologies such as AI and machine learning.