13 August 2018
The survey asked 514 UK businesses about their approaches to data backups and storage. SOURCE: BEAMING & OPINIUM 2018
Almost a million UK businesses do not backup their company data, according to research commissioned by Beaming.
The business ISP also found that a further 2.8 million firms risk losing valuable information by storing electronic copies in the same location as the original data.
Earlier this year, Beaming asked research consultancy Opinium to survey the leaders of 514 UK businesses on their approaches to data backups and storage.
The survey results were multiplied by UK government business population figures to estimate the total number of businesses falling into each category.
The poll revealed that while most (83 per cent) backup their data, half save it to servers or storage devices in the same premises.
The table above shows that many SMBs as well as large organisations currently store backup information in the same location as it is generated. Beaming says this leaves them vulnerable to data loss through theft, fire or malware attack.
It also found that 17 per cent of all businesses keep no data backups whatsoever and store information only on individual computers and employee devices.
Sole traders and micro companies employing less than 10 people are most likely to be guilty of not backing up their data, says Beaming.
Only 35 per cent of businesses currently store their backup data to outside of the office. These include:
- 15 per cent of sole traders and 13 per cent of micro businesses who backup their data to cloud storage services from companies such as Google, Microsoft and Amazon
- 24 per cent of small and 18 per cent of medium sized businesses who require employees to physically take backups of data home on portable storage devices
- 33 per cent of large and 32 per cent of medium sized companies who copy data to their own servers located in dedicated data centres or colocation facilities
Beaming adds that less than a fifth currently backup their data to facilities located at least 30 miles from their own premises – the minimum distance recommended by business continuity experts to limit the IT impact of natural disasters.
Most companies adhering the ‘30 mile rule’ are using cloud-base storage services and do not know precisely where their data is held.
Beaming MD Sonia Blizzard recommends storing data in private cloud or co-location facilities.
Beaming MD Sonia Blizzard warns that most businesses, particularly at the smaller end, don’t do enough to safeguard their information.
She says: “Our research shows that almost four million UK businesses are vulnerable to data loss from single events and could potentially become unable to operate.”
Blizzard says the introduction of GDPR has highlighted the need for secure and resilient data storage in order to mitigate the risk of significant data loss.
“We’d encourage businesses to think seriously about private cloud or co-location services when it comes to storing highly sensitive data or mission critical applications.”
She adds that these should only be accessed through the most secure forms of connectivity.
