StorageCraft Global Research: Fast Data Growth and What CEOs Need to Know

Businesses worldwide are concerned about the impacts and risks that accompany massive data growth. That’s according to an independent global research study commissioned by StorageCraft to learn about the experiences and attitudes of IT decision-makers (ITDMs) around data management. In this post, we’ll take a look at some of the issues the survey respondents care about, the impacts they are already seeing on their companies, and their perspectives on how well these impacts are understood by their CEOs.

More Data, More Problems

Of those surveyed, 86 percent believe data volume will increase by 10x or more in the next five years. The challenges that come with so much data aren’t lost on ITDMs, with 99 percent expressing concerns about the risk and business impacts it will have on their organization. At the same time, few of the respondents—just 3 percent—fear this prospect. Interestingly, those who say they are “scared” are much more likely to be executives. In some ways that makes sense, as senior leaders are generally less likely to have an understanding of the nuts and bolts of the problems, and how they could potentially be solved. Regardless of their level of concern, respondents made it clear that they saw data growth impacting their business across a number of areas:

• 64% believe operational costs will increase
• 47% don’t know if they will be able to recover quickly enough in the event of a data outage
• 39% think they will be more susceptible to security risks
• 29% expect strategic projects to fail
• 25% anticipate revenue generation slowing

What really stands out is that eight percent of respondents are concerned that they will be forced out of business if data challenges aren't addressed.

Larger Companies, Bigger Impacts

Let’s take a look at some of the business impacts that ITDMs think their CEOs should be concerned about. The survey revealed that 84 percent of companies subject to the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) are seeing direct impacts driven by required compliance. According to the survey, of the 84 percent:

• 55% express increased concerns about potential non-compliance
• 52% say the cost of compliance has increased
• 33% report that their resources are strained to keep up
• 22% shared that other initiatives have been sacrificed to focus on compliance

And, again, one statistic really stands out. Eleven percent are simply no longer keeping up with compliance requirements. While the laws may be different in North America and other parts of the world, compliance is still a problem for companies of all sizes. The largest companies—those with more than 1,000 employees—report the greatest impacts on their businesses because of GDPR and other data compliance and privacy legislation.

CEOs Need to Be in the Loop

All of these fears, concerns, and impacts resulted in more than 69 percent of those responding saying that their CEO should know more about data growth. Respondents also reported that CEOs of American and Canadian companies are the least aware of the impacts of data growth. These results should be seen as a call to arms for ITDMs. Now is the time to get your executive team involved so your business is ready for a future built on data. To learn how StorageCraft can help you securely, efficiently, and cost-effectively store, protect, and manage your data, schedule a demo with a StorageCraft engineer today.