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According to respondents of Backup My Info’s first IT Consultant survey, which analyzed how IT consultants perceive online data backup and recovery and included IT consultants, VARs, systems integrators and other channel professionals, technical service and support (91 percent) is the most important factor when selecting data backup and recovery vendors. Pricing (73 percent), data security (62 percent) and industry reputation (51 percent) were also determined to be key criteria.
The survey also found not all IT consultants test a data restore process on a consistent basis. Only 4 percent of respondents tested the restore process of a client’s backup operation on a daily basis. The same percentage tested on a weekly basis. The remaining tested monthly (56 percent), yearly (25 percent) or never (11 percent). The survey was conducted from June to August 2011 and is based on responses from 55 IT consultants – some of whom are part of BUMI’s IT consultant program.
Only 47 percent check the status of clients’ backup processes on a daily basis, according to the survey. Other IT consultants check on backup processes on a weekly (20 percent) and monthly (25 percent) basis while some do not monitor backup processes at all (7 percent). “The findings also showed that backups and recovery processes were not always being tested as regularly as they should have been,” said Jennifer Walzer, CEO of BUMI. “Routine testing is what enables organizations to defend against unforeseen events by catching glitches and other problems in the restore process before it becomes a real problem.”
The survey found that 60 percent of IT consultant respondents believe online providers offer the most reliable data backup and recovery solutions. Internal appliances (25 percent), replication methods (11 percent) and storage tape (4 percent) all scored poorly in comparison. Sixty-seven percent of respondents are confident that their clients’ data will be restored flawlessly within hours.
“Customer service is paramount, and the findings of the survey reaffirm that,” said Walzer. “Data is growing too quickly and technology is changing too fast to automate the backup and recovery process. When you have a data failure, you don’t want to be filling out online forms or talking to someone who is reading from a script. You want a senior-level engineer who knows your data environment and business needs to walk you through the process.”