Dodgy information management storing up problems for enterprises

Problems include slow backup, duplication and difficult-to-retrieve documents

Data backup practices storing up problems

Poor information management practices are still causing significant business problems including unsustainable backup windows, increased litigation risk and inefficient discovery practices, according to a report from security specialist Symantec.

The report, 2010 Information Management Health Check Survey, shows that although 87 per cent of respondents believe in the value of a formal information retention plan, only 46 per cent actually have one.

Gareth Fraser King, Symantec senior manager product marketing EMEA, said: “The exponential increase in data in recent years means that primary storage requirements have become enormous; this is expensive and is storing up a host of problems.

“Backup time has become an issue. An organisation might be trying to do a full backup every day but then be backing up so much data that it takes more than 24 hours to complete. This is a volume issue."

Other problems include not being able to retrieve data where there are legal discovery requirements. This is usually due to it being unsorted and is compounded by the volume of data stored.

The Symantec research found that some 70 per cent of enterprises use ordinary backup software to store data for potential legal or audit reasons, which means it is unclassified, while 25 per cent preserve the entire backup set indefinitely. On average, 40 per cent of information placed on legal hold is not specifically relevant to that litigation.

King said: “Unless stored data is classified and indexed, finding relevant data in a backup is like trying to find a particular needle in a haystack that is full of needles. As bits and bytes, all documents are stored as if equal. An important document will not be any easier to find than one of no importance.”

There are several ways to deal with these problems, according to King. The first is to avoid duplicating data. “Of the 1.2 zetabytes of data backed up, up to 98 per cent of that is replicated or mirrored data. Getting rid of this will help solve the volume problem,” he said.

In addition, King argued that companies need to index and classify their information, which would make it easier to retrieve documents for legal or auditing purposes.

Some 1,680 large enterprises from across the world took part in the survey.