Fred Engel, SVP of
Engineering and CTO at Iron
Mountain Digital: “With
outsourcing, CIOs are free to
strategically analyze their
backup and archiving needs
separately.”
COMPLIANCE AND SECURITY,
among other things, are driving
greater attention to electronic
information management
strategies, from data retention schedules to destruction
protocols. But are CIOs overly
confident in their efforts?
A recent study by IDG
Research Services reveals that
IT professionals understand
the fundamentals of managing and protecting data, but key best practices are often
not in place.
Case in point: The majority of respondents express an
appreciation for outsourcing as one of those best practices,
yet only 17 percent are ready to embrace Storage-as-a-Service. The study polled 100 IT decision-makers from
organizations with 1,000 or more employees. Research
took place in January 2008, and included responses from
15 verticals, with healthcare, manufacturing, government,
finance and banking, and insurance comprising the majority of respondents.
“This obvious discrepancy begs a very important question,” says Fred Engel, SVP of Engineering and CTO of Iron
Mountain Digital. “Are CIOs doing enough to bet their
badge on their current information management, storage
and data protection strategy?”
BOTTOM LINE
Recent research
reveals that It
professionals
understand the
fundamentals of
managing and protecting data, but key
best practices are
often not in place.
Best Practices
or Best Effort?
IDG research reveals gaps
between information
management best efforts and
best practices
By karyn MurPhy
Progress, but Still Room to Improve
When it comes to information management, storage and
data protection strategies, CIOs are making significant
headway. The IDG study identifies four decisive actions
that respondents say they are taking to better manage and
protect their data. But at the same time, it uncovers several
critical areas where enterprises may be falling short.
1. CIOs are creating policies around retention and destruction. Ninety-four percent of respondents indicate that they
have created or are in the process of creating written policies governing the retention and destruction of electronic
information. Still, with such an overwhelming response,
one must question how formal and comprehensive those
policies are. Best practices mandate that policies be continually updated and formally communicated. Perhaps
more important, those policies must extend enterprise-wide, across centralized records and desktop files alike.
And they should cover all types of media, from physical and electronic records to structured and unstructured
data. That seems a tall order for such a high percentage
of respondents.
2. Enterprises are treating backup and archiving requirements separately. Another encouraging fact is that nearly
half of the respondents say they archive separately from
their backups. Yet a full 39 percent still do not discern
