Survey Says: Companies Failing to Recognise Impact of Persistent Data

By Greg McNevin

October 3, 2008: According to new survey data from Copan Systems, companies are not taking advantage of storage efficiencies, and are not fully educated about the environmental and economical impact of their current storage decisions.

The survey, focussed on persistent data, canvassed the opinions of over 250 IT professionals at Fortune 1000 companies, government and academic institutions around the world. It found that 71 percent are storing persistent data on either primary storage or a mix of primary and archival systems - an expensive, inefficient and environmentally wasteful method for storing static data according to Copan.

It also found that while most industry analysts estimate persistent data to be 70 percent or more of all corporate data, only 30 percent of respondents estimated their persistent data to be that large - an indication that most companies do not understand how much persistent data is clogging their storage networks.

A further 20 percent acknowledged they did not know how much persistent data currently resides on their systems.

“Storing persistent data that is infrequently accessed on primary storage systems is a huge waste of both economic and environmental resources,” says Jay Gagne, Solutions Architect for Copan.

“We have found that many companies don’t fully grasp the types of data they are storing and how to store it effectively. There is a great untapped opportunity for companies to leverage more cost effective storage strategies to help dramatically alleviate the pressures that persistent data is putting on data centres around the world.”

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