Virtualization is good, but back-up is a headache: Survey

BANGALORE, INDIA: Nearly 90 per cent of IT decision makers struggle with backing-up data in virtualized environments, according to the findings of a new survey, '2012 IT Manager Survey', by Quantum Corp. This represents a five per cent increase in reported difficulty compared to a year and a half ago.

In addition, the survey revealed that data growth continues to be a challenge for IT managers who have implemented server virtualization. Despite the benefits of virtualization, 41 per cent of respondents reported that it resulted in increased data growth, and 24 per cent said they were forced to re-engineer existing storage environments for interoperability after adopting virtualization.

Compared to Quantum’s 2010 survey, the latest survey results suggest that while fewer IT managers experience higher energy demands (21 per cent versus 31 per cent in 2010) and data bottlenecks (22 per cent versus 30 per cent in 2010) as a result of server virtualization, they are paying more in software costs to address these issues (25 per cent versus 22 per cent in 2010).

Finally, one in four IT managers continue to experience back-up problems at remote branches as a result of server virtualization.

“The benefits of virtualization are well established, and more businesses are looking to extend these benefits to their environments,” said Robert Clark, senior vice president, Data Protection Group, Quantum. “However, this survey shows that while organizations are adopting virtualization as part of their data center, they often run into unforeseen challenges with data protection. We’ve spent the past year creating solutions that simplify backup in virtual environments so organizations can take full advantage of the benefits of virtualization.”