Press Releases
66% of IT managers say data loss or corruption is their greatest fear when migrating data
[20-03-2006]
73% want a risk-free way to migrate data to avoid vendor lock-in
London, March 20 2006 – 66% of IT managers say data loss or corruption is their greatest fear when migrating data, according to research commissioned by Morse, the technology integration and services company. The research found that this fear is so extreme that over one third (39%) of IT managers have avoided taking on a data migration project specifically because of the perceived risks involved. This is despite the fact that, as a result, the business would not be able to take advantage of new storage technology and products on the market, which could make storage easier to manage and even save money. The research surveyed 100 IT managers in enterprises across the UK and was undertaken by Vanson Bourne.
"It’s understandable that IT managers have developed a phobia about migrating business data. However, they shouldn’t let this fear stand in the way of the advantages of new technology that could reduce the amount of time and money needed to manage business data," said Wes van den Berg, storage consultant Morse. "Today’s businesses can’t afford to be locked into one vendor’s technology when there are so many different options and new features available."
Along with data loss or corruption, over half (52%) of the IT managers surveyed also said that concern about network downtime during the migration would be playing on their minds and would prevent them from taking on a data migration project. Other fears making IT managers think twice about migration were the potential for conflict between legacy and new operating systems or applications (38%), and the worry that migrating data while keeping IT systems online would be too costly because it would take longer to plan and longer to migrate the data across (29%).
However, 73% of IT managers admitted they would be prepared to tackle data migration if there was a risk-free way to migrate their data to and from any vendor’s storage device to free them from being locked into one vendor’s technology and to allow them to take advantage of new storage devices and technology.
When asked about what would drive them to consider migrating their data, 64% of IT managers said the ability to consolidate their storage systems would tip the balance for them. Over half (54%) said that they would consider migration as part of implementing a disaster recovery solution, while 47% said that the desire to create a tiered storage or information lifecycle management strategy would influence their decision to migrate data. Of those surveyed, 34% cited the need to adhere to a particular compliance regulation as being the motivating factor for them to consider the migration of their data.
"Clearly, IT managers are crying out for a way to help them tackle data migration so that it’s no longer seen as something to be filed away in the ‘too hard’ basket. To avoid being locked into one vendor’s technology, businesses need to partner with a company that can take them through all the steps of a successful storage migration to ensure there is no risk of losing or corrupting business critical data. This should include an audit of the company’s existing storage devices and infrastructure, design of the new storage architecture followed by a test run of the migration before the data is finally migrated over. Only by rigorously following this process can businesses break free from their old storage and reap the benefits of new devices on the market," said van den Berg.