CIO Report: Enterprise Data Protection

1. Summary

The enterprise data protection market still leverages a traditional approach to solving the increasingly complicated enterprise requirements. Solutions range from on-premises traditional software to specialized appliances to cloud-based solutions. Some solutions support hybrid cloud to meet a specific enterprise’s requirements. Most of the solutions take a traditional approach to backup and recovery while a few are looking to leverage newer data sources and technologies.

Key findings include:

• The data protection application is starting to disassociate from the underlying infrastructure. This opens new options for different delivery methods including cloud.
• Cloud support exists to widely varying degrees. Solutions may support cloud as a location to run the data protection application and/or as a source or target.
• Primary data sources are still the focus for most enterprise data protection solutions with limited support for non-traditional data sources including cloud,containers, and endpoints.
• Enterprise data protection solutions are starting to leverage machine learning and artificial intelligence to enhance automation capabilities. As enterprise requirements increase in complexity, so will the reliance on sophisticated automation.
• Strong management tools are essential for any enterprise data protection solution. The increasing degree of complexity makes automation and the overall management tool a core requirement.
• Support for regulatory and compliance requirements is in its infancy. Few products have yet to tackle this challenge. This could be one of the biggest opportunities for enterprise data protection moving forward.
• Simplicity is starting to make its way into enterprise data protection as solutions start to consolidate storage and data protection components into one system.
• Purchase models are moving away from traditional, perpetually-licensed software that runs on-premises to software that runs in a SaaS model from the cloud.