Symantec has released the findings of its 2010 Information Management Health Check Survey, which highlight a majority of enterprises are not following their own advice when it comes to information management.

Ninety-six percent (87 percent globally) of Australian and New Zealand (ANZ) respondents believe in the value of a formal information retention plan, but only 50 percent (46 percent) actually have one.

“The gap between enterprise information management goals and practices is driving common mistakes such as over retention and improper backup, recovery and archiving practices. The survey highlights that businesses are spending far more time and money on the negative consequences of poor information management and discovery practices than they would by working to change them,” said Craig Scroggie, vice president and managing director, Symantec Australia and New Zealand.

“The survey results found that too many enterprises save information indefinitely instead of implementing policies that allow them to confidently delete unimportant data or records, and therefore suffer from rampant storage growth, unsustainable backup windows, increased litigation risk and expensive and inefficient discovery processes.”

The survey was conducted in June 2010 and is based on responses from 1,680 senior IT and legal executives in 26 countries including 150 IT and legal executives in Australia and New Zealand from organisations above 500 staff.

Most enterprises (96 percent in ANZ and 87 percent globally) believe a proper information retention strategy should allow them to delete unnecessary information. However, less than half (50 percent in ANZ and 46 percent globally) actually have a formal information retention plan in place.

Sixty-eight percent (75 percent globally) of backup storage consists of infinite retention or legal hold backup sets. Respondents also stated that 25 percent globally and in ANZ of the data they back up is not needed and probably should not be retained.

Eighty-five percent (70 percent globally) of enterprises use their backup software to achieve legal holds and 17 percent (25 percent globally) preserve the entire backup set indefinitely. Respondents said 38 percent (45 percent globally) of backup storage comes from legal holds alone. In addition, enterprises cited that, on average, 40 percent of information placed on legal hold is not specifically relevant for that litigation. Using archiving and backup together provides immediate access to the most pertinent information while allowing enterprises to backup less.

Nearly half of the enterprises surveyed are improperly using their backup and recovery software for archiving. Additionally, while 74 percent (51 percent globally) prohibit employees from creating their own archives on their local machines and shared drives, 77 percent (65 percent globally) admit that employees routinely do so anyway.
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