CIOs don’t trust virtualisation, claims Veeam

Veeam Software has released research findings that claim enterprises are avoiding virtualisation for mission critical task due to concerns over reliability. The backup software vendors “VMware Data Protection Report 2010” surveyed 500 chief information officers and found that 44 percent of CIOs say they are avoiding using virtualisation for certain mission-critical workloads due to concerns about backup and recovery. The survey also found that only two-thirds back up their virtual infrastructure.

But the survey found attitudes are changing. 61 percent of enterprises using physical-based tools for backup and recovery will now change their approach specifically because of virtualisation.

“The message is simple: without the correct strategy, organisations will never unlock virtualisation’s full potential,” says Ratmir Timashev, president and CEO of Veeam. “What is needed is a change of perspective. Businesses must stop looking at a virtual environment as simply an extension of physical infrastructure. Instead, they must realise that virtualisation can bring a host of extra benefits to data protection, but only if they change their approach to management.”

So what are firms spending data storage budgets on instead? According to a recent survey by BakBone Software, the answer is old fashioned archiving of files and emails. Its recent European survey of 300 senior IT professionals found within its UK sample around 35 percent were planning on spending more on email archiving,while 48 percent aim to invest more in file archiving.

Fear of the regulators is one reason according to Adrian Moir, technical director EMEA at BakBone Software: “Increasingly stringent regulations mean that all companies are under more pressure than ever before to put in place an effective archiving solution for the growing volume of unstructured data in place. Many companies have already invested in an email archiving product and the next logical step is to expand the installation to address the need to archive and manage unstructured file data.”

The survey found a few regional variances with the manufacturing sector in Germany and France as the one most likely to choose file archiving in the next twelve months with 92 percent whereas in the UK, it was the financial industry with 60 percent.