Companies that succeed in gathering relevant data, along with using it appropriately, now have a big competitive advantage over their competition. McKinsey estimates that a retailer using big data to its fullest capability could increase its operating margin by more than 60%.
We know that data is growing at an exponential rate but by how much? Google’s Eric Schmidt claims that humankind now creates as much information in just two days than we did from the dawn of civilization up until 2003! The volume of data created by U.S. companies alone each year is enough to fill ten thousand Libraries of Congress. The pace of data growth means that no one can really put an exact figure to the amount of data being created. At last count, IBM estimated that 2.5 exabytes (2.5 billion gigabytes (GB)) of data was generated every day in 2012. Yikes.
However, in the wake of accumulating data, many companies ignore the crucial part of analyzing or putting data to good use. Even more companies fail to take safeguards to protect their crucial data. Obsessed with the task of mining data, they neglect the data they already have at their disposal – that is, until a disaster strikes!
Data faces a variety of risks, including theft of intellectual property data by corporate rivals, cybercriminals stealing personal information, rogue insiders trying to delete data, random technical glitches or human errors that lead to loss of data. Even an old version being copied over a new version could lead to data loss. We also can’t forget natural disasters such as floods, fires, short circuits, hard drive crashes, and a host of other causes that could cause data loss. It’s no secret that data loss can be fatal, leading to penalties for non-compliance, claims of damages from those put at risk, loss of customer and proprietary information, operational problems, and many other devastating effects. The consequences of data loss, in the form of lost business opportunity, customer dissatisfaction, or penalties, would in almost all cases be more than the potential gains arising from accumulating new data.
It is important to have a reliable backup and disaster recovery system in place that not only does a good job in protecting data, but it also makes the task extremely easy and seamless. In today’s highly competitive world, companies cannot afford to spend too much time on data management, away from their core operational activities.
Backup appliances are a good solution for businesses for data growth and management because they provide archiving, disaster recovery and backups, all in one solution. These processes are also automated so you can focus on what’s most important instead of manually managing them. The STORServer Backup Appliance does just that, and we can help you choose which software, appliance and setup is right for your current data infrastructure so installation is easy and quick.
If you’d like more information on the STORServer Backup Appliance, download our “Guide to Backup Appliance Technology” white paper today, or use our Solution Wizard to see which device is right for your organization.
