UK firms gamble with company data

Overview of survey findings
· One in Five UK firms (19%) has no idea how long it would take them to get their data back if public cloud services went bust
· Over a Quarter (26%) has no idea how much it would cost them to get their data back
· One in ten (12%) of businesses that were legally obliged to keep their data in the country the business resides in, didn’t know where their data was

Public cloud model is unsustainable
The current business model for public cloud services is unprofitable. Companies build or rent expensive infrastructure and pay for massive amounts of bandwidth to transfer all user data, yet most users don’t pay for the service meaning the providers are making a loss1. If these losses continue, it is likely that public cloud service providers could go bust. Despite these warnings, UK firms continue to put data on the public cloud and few understand the impact to their business, were this data to disappear.

Time to get the data back
The survey of 100 UK businesses revealed over two thirds (69%) put company data on public clouds but nearly a fifth (19%) admit that, if these services went bust, they have no idea how quickly they could get their data back or migrate it to another provider in such an event. 38% thought it would take a few days, nearly one in ten (9%) thought it might take weeks. Even a day or two without mission critical data could have a serious knock-on effect on an organisation.

Cost to get data back
Furthermore, over a quarter (26%) did not know what it would cost them to get their data back. Nearly a third (31%) estimated the cost to be over £10,000. 9% suspecting it would be between £26k and £50k. A further 9% suspected it would be over £50k.

Compliance concerns
Companies are even leaving compliance to chance. One in ten (12%) of businesses that were legally obliged to keep their data in the country the business resides in, didn’t know where their data actually was. Failing to meet such requirements could lead to strict penalties and reputational damage.

Can private cloud solve the problem?
A private cloud appliance, such as the recently launched, Transporter, is a purchased appliance which uses existing infrastructure and avoids the backend costs that plague traditional cloud companies. This means it is highly profitable. For customers this means that the data is secure in every way. It’s 100% private, no one can access or remove it and data is stored onsite only.

“Public cloud storage – offered by companies like Dropbox and Box - are really popular,” comments Geoff Barrall, CEO of Transporter, “ But, these firms are failing financially and that puts the data stored on them at risk. What is more worrying is that our survey shows UK firms have not fully considered this risk, partly because using the cloud is so easy, its hard to resist.

“That is why we developed Transporter.” he added, “It gives users the same flexibility and experience as Dropbox and Box, but it gives CIOs that all important control over their data. No UK firm wants to be without its data for even a day, let alone weeks. They certainly don’t want to be paying to get their data back. Having data on site gives companies peace of mind, whatever the future holds.”

“With a private cloud appliance no exit strategy is required.” Geoff concluded, “You have control of your data, always. You can access it at all times from anywhere, yet it remains onsite and under your control.”