When it comes to data restoration, addressing deleted mailboxes or emails is the most common request of IT administrators, according to new survey conducted by data recovery specialist Kroll Ontrack. 

When asked how often they receive requests for data restoration, 61 percent of the nearly 200 Ontrack PowerControls users surveyed across North America, EMEA and APAC report they receive up to five restoration requests a month, with an additional 11 percent claiming up to 10 times a month. 

Accidental deletion of mailboxes and specific messages from Microsoft Exchange is not the only data restoration request made of IT administrators.  In the US, the second most common data restoration need was collection of electronic data for ediscovery (21 percent), followed by consolidating data from older to new applications to eliminate legacy servers (15 percent). 

Requests for data restoration came from all departments across an organisation, with 24 percent stemming from the internal legal department, 22 percent coming from IT security and 15 percent originating from sales and marketing. Why do these people need their email and documents back?  Forty-five percent of IT administrator respondents note that employees request their email and documents back because they were accidentally deleted. Internal investigations (17 percent) ranked as the second most common source of restoration requests. 

“The time it takes to search, identify, copy, restore and export data from Microsoft Exchange or Microsoft SharePoint platforms can be significant, especially if IT admins are executing the task by restoring a full database backup,” said Tom McCaffrey, product director of enterprise solutions, Kroll Ontrack.