Large organizations improve back-up procedures

We are just wrapping up a survey of back-up and archiving procedures in organizations of all sizes, comparing the data to a survey we conducted in October. Here are some of the highlights from the survey for large organizations (more than 1,000 e-mail users):

* They’re keeping back-up data for longer periods. In October, 67% of organizations performed simple messaging system backups and kept the data for no more than 90 days, while another 22% performed these backups but kept critical data for longer than 90 days. In the most recent survey, however, we found that those with shorter back-up retention periods had dropped to 54%, while the percentage with longer retention had increased to 33%.

* More organizations’ IT departments are archiving critical data. In October 37% of organizations had their IT departments archive critical data, but that number has increased to 45% in the current survey. The percentage of users that back up their own critical data or that print and file critical data has dropped in the current survey.

* More organizations have different levels of backup or archiving for their e-mail servers based on different retention requirements for various types of data. In October, that percentage was 18%, and it has increased to 25% in the current survey.

What this means is that large organizations are now taking messaging system data retention more seriously. This is likely due in part to the bad press some financial services organizations received when they were fined millions of dollars by the Securities and Exchange Commission for not handling e-mail properly. However, it’s also likely due to the fact that messaging continues to be an increasingly critical part of the IT infrastructure for most organizations, and retaining data in these systems is simply becoming more important.

If you’re an IT manager or e-mail administrator and you are reviewing your back-up and/or archiving requirements, I’d appreciate your comments on this issue, particularly with regard to how these requirements are changing over time and why. Please drop me a line at mailto:michael@ostermanresearch.com