Survey: Data Loss and Privacy Breaches Remain Top Challenges in 2014 for IT Professionals

BOSTON--Iron Mountain, the storage and information management company, has published predictions from 230 IT professionals on how organizations will protect data in 2014 and beyond.

Titled The Cost of Inertia, the newly released report indicates that IT professionals believe most organizations will not do enough in the near future to fortify their data backup and recovery practices, despite recognizing that information security risks continue to grow. Some of the report’s key insights include:

Data loss ranks as number one concern of IT leaders: With 68 percent probability, the report shows that data loss and privacy breaches are the most prevalent concern for IT leaders over the next 12-18 months.

Managing increased data volumes will continue to overwhelm organizations: There is a 77 percent likelihood that the rising tide of data will remain the greatest challenge facing IT organizations. Contributing to the issue is that many enterprises have data stored on various technologies, making access to this data a concern as these organizations work to meet growing archiving requirements.

Backup tape is still an attractive storage option: Respondents indicated with a 62 percent confidence level that IT organizations are grappling with limited funding for aligning data growth and data protection. At the same time, tape’s low total cost of ownership (TCO) makes it an attractive factor for its role in a hybrid backup strategy.

“As the volume of data continues to explode, companies are strapped with how to cost effectively archive that information and protect it from potential data loss,” said Jay Livens, director of product and solutions marketing, Iron Mountain. “The only way organizations can accomplish these goals and overcome their limited budgets is to store smart with a mix of cloud, disk and tape technologies.”

Iron Mountain Incorporated (NYSE: IRM) is a leading provider of storage and information management services. The company’s real estate network of over 64 million square feet across more than 1,000 facilities in 36 countries allows it to serve customers with speed and accuracy. And its solutions for records management, data management, document management, and secure shredding help organizations to lower storage costs, comply with regulations, recover from disaster, and better use their information for business advantage.