Data management
Data Management Opportunities Abound for Channel
Poor data management practices may cost organizations more than $3 trillion by 2020. This creates significant data management opportunities for the channel.
The Growth of Data
On average, IT executives report data is growing at a rate of 39% per year.
Average File Size
The average size of a file is just over half a megabyte and has only increased 10.3% in the past seven years. But the storage environment itself is cluttered. The average petabyte of information contains 2,312,000,000 files. But files that are classified as stale are 33% smaller than the files that have been modified in the past year.
Worst Storage Offenders
Developer (20.1%), image (11.7%) and unknown files (10.8%) make up the largest percentage of files. Image GB (gigabytes) at 14.2%, compressed GB at 10.8% and developer GB at 9.2% account for the most space consumed.
Types of Files That Should Be Cut Down in Size
Virtual machine, security, gaming file, scientific and geographic information system file types are the top-five file types that can be reduced in size.
Hidden Storage Costs
41% of the operating environment has not been modified in three years, and 12% has not been modified in seven years. If 41% of the environment is stale, organizations could be spending as much as $20.5 million per year to manage data that hasn’t been touched in three years.
Business-Critical Data
The average U.S. organization only has 16% of its data tagged as business critical. ROT data is, on average, 30%, while “dark data” makes up 54%.
Rate of Data Removal
Just over a third of IT executives say they remove ROT data every quarter, versus just under a third that say they do it monthly. Another 15% say they remove ROT data on a weekly basis, while 5% say they have no strategy in place.
The Trouble With Orphan Data
While orphaned data is a mere 1.6% of the total file population, it’s 5.1% of the total storage capacity. Orphaned data is also disproportionately skewed toward content-rich data types, with images taking up 88% more space than normal and videos and presentations at 165% and 229%, respectively. Orphan files are also 222% larger than the average file.
The Trouble With Employee Data
The number of employees using corporate networks for their personal use is growing, leading to more types of files, such as personal legal and ID documents (62%), photos (60%) or non-approved software (27%) being stored at work. Due to this growth, 45% of respondents in the U.S. say they are worried about employees being careless with how they handle company data.
Targets for Archiving
Content-rich files—such as presentations, spreadsheets, documents and text files—make up 20% of the average stale environment. Archiving them reduces storage costs by 50% or more—a return of more than $2 million. Audio and video files alone can return 11%. Images take up 18% of storage space in the ancient, seven-year-or-older file category.