Study Shows Strong Spending Trends in Data Protection

Asia Pacific, April 2, 2007 -- HP today announced the results of a worldwide independent survey commissioned by HP, which found that more than 80 percent of IT decision makers worldwide, including CIOs, IT directors and IT managers, view business continuity and availability (BC&A) as an increased priority for 2007 and key to sharpening their competitive business edge worldwide. Approximately four out of five managers and executives responsible for business continuity and availability indicate that the area will see an increase in spending this year as compared to 2006. The survey further revealed that security, disaster tolerant solutions, backup and recovery efforts, and IT service management offerings emerged as areas where investment will increase in 2007. The same sentiments were echoed in Asia Pacific as India accounted for the highest planned increase in spending for security and disaster tolerant solutions, while China and Australia accounted for the highest planned investment in backup and recovery efforts, and IT service management offerings respectively. In evaluating solutions and vendors, nine in 10 decision makers (89%) revealed that they wanted comprehensive solutions that span BC&A and security, considering this type of holistic solution important, while three in four (74%) respondents indicated their preference for a single BC&A vendor. A Shift in Strategy and Priorities As companies have historically taken a reactive approach to recovering from unplanned downtime or disasters, the proactive focus on business continuity and availability presents a shift in strategy. It also reflects the trend towards building next generation data centers, “lights-out” computing environments that HP helps create through its Adaptive Infrastructure offerings. In today’s ultra-competitive global marketplace, however, any amount of downtime can be devastating, if not terminal, to a business. While data protection emerged as the top driver for BC&A spending across all markets for 2006 and 2007, shifts in priorities were noted. “Data protection” and “lower IT costs” declined in importance, with “competitive pressure”, “maintaining operational uptime” and “improving regulatory compliance” showing increases in importance in 2007 over 2006. Diversity was noted across markets in Asia Pacific as respondents indicated different key drivers for BC&A spending. The top three drivers for the Asia Pacific markets were: Australia: maintaining operational uptime, data protection and revenue protection, China: competitive pressure, data protection and business change, India: data protection, lower operational/IT costs and downtime from human error or intervention, South Korea: Security breach/denial of service attack, data protection and preparation for pandemic. “The survey shows that decision makers no longer view BC&A as desirable, but as essential to their business,” said Jane Rushton, Regional Business Development Manager, Business Continuity & Availability, HP Asia Pacific & Japan. “The survey results also showed that while markets in Asia Pacific are becoming increasingly concerned with BC&A, there are geographical differences and this is consistent with what we have been hearing from our customers.” Overcoming Challenges with Sound IT Plans While the survey shows an increased awareness of and need for business continuity, availability and disaster recovery solutions, the fact remains that IT organizations worldwide still face significant challenges to implementing a sound plan. Despite a high level of preparedness in the region, with 78 to 93 percent of the respondents in the Asia Pacific countries indicating they had a business continuity plan in place, the most significant challenges to BC&A implementation were the “lack of experienced internal resources” (59%), “lack of an agreed technology solution” (55%) and “not enough time to implement” (49%). With these barriers in mind, HP recommends following a simple, six-step process for evaluating, designing and implementing a long-term business continuity plan: Take stock of your current IT assets, including hardware, people and applications, and determine your IT department’s current challenges – make sure to invest in best practices Utilize a holistic approach to building a plan, integrating people, processes and technology, that allows you to meet the changing needs of a dynamic market Find a single (or no more than two) vendor that provides a comprehensive portfolio of solutions to cover the areas of business continuity, availability, disaster recovery and security Set-up a timeline for achieving these metrics with specific action items, dates and go-to project leads Utilize technologies such as virtualization and remote data storage that will help cut costs and manage system failovers Frequently test your systems to ensure that performance levels and access to data are maintained. “In business, IT downtime of any kind can be costly to an organization’s bottom line,” concluded Rushton. “The research shows that IT decision makers see dramatic return on investment benefits as a result of building a sound, long-term, holistic business continuity plan that will ultimately reduce the impact of internal or external threats.” In the poll conducted by GCR Custom Research, more than 564 IT decision makers worldwide, of which 210 were from Asia Pacific, responded to questions assessing their business continuity, availability and disaster recovery plans and the technologies being used to implement those plans. Sixty-two percent of the respondents represented companies with more than US$100 million in annual revenue from industries that include manufacturing, healthcare, education and financial services. Forty-eight percent of respondents represented mid-size companies with 100 – 999 employees. HP’s Unique Approach to Business Continuity and Availability HP offers an integrated approach to business continuity and availability that helps organizations balance cost with risk across the enterprise. HP’s holistic approach begins with comprehensive planning and governance, providing a thorough understanding of a customer’s business requirements and current readiness, and then planning next steps to achieve a resilient, compliant and high-performance IT operation. HP translates the customer’s business service-level requirements into an operational plan of improvement that combines people, process and technology. Specific offerings include business continuity solutions; high-availability management solutions; data protection and recovery solutions; and security and disaster tolerance solutions. More information about HP's business continuity and availability solutions is available at http://www.hp.com/go/continuityandavailability.