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The Dell Technologies 2021 Global Data Protection Index (GDPI) findings reveal organisations are facing several data protection challenges driven by the constant threat of ransomware, the consumption of emerging technologies, and data growth.

According to a recent IDC survey, more than one third of organisations worldwide have experienced a ransomware attack or breach that blocked access to systems or data in the previous 12 months. To help address these rising – and seemingly inevitable – issues, Dell is introducing new software and services to accelerate virtual machine (VM) backup data availability, simplify management of large data sets, and maintain business continuity while alleviating dependencies on day-to-day cyber recovery operations.

New GDPI findings reveal increased state of complexity around data protection

The Dell Technologies 2021 GDPI survey of 1,000 global IT decision makers shows organisations are combatting continued data growth and increased data protection complexities. The study found that organisations are managing more than 10 times the amount of data than they did five years ago – from 1.45 petabytes in 2016 to 14.6 petabytes in 2021.

Additionally, 72% of South Africa respondents are concerned their organisation’s existing data protection solutions won’t be able to meet all future business challenges. These concerns are well-founded, with 20% of South African respondents reporting data loss in the last year and nearly half (44%) experiencing unplanned system downtime.

GDPI findings for South Africa include:

• 72% are concerned their existing data protection measures may not be sufficient to cope with malware and ransomware threats, while 68% agree they have increased exposure to data loss from cyber threats with the growth of employees working from home.
• Almost half, 46% lack confidence that all their business-critical data can be recovered in the event of a destructive cyberattack or data loss. This is however better than the global average of 67%.
• 12% percent believe emerging technologies—such as cloud-native applications, Kubernetes containers, artificial intelligence and machine learning pose a risk to data protection, and the lack of data protection solutions for newer technologies was a top-three challenge for organisations.

“As the digital economy grows so too do data volumes and, in turn, the cyber threat surface area,” commented Doug Woolley, Managing Director, Dell Technologies South Africa.

“’At Dell Technologies we provide our customers with software and managed services and a single point of call, reducing risk and providing peace of mind that their business-critical data is protected from edge to core to cloud. Our customers can feel confident that through our single-vendor approach, all facets of their data landscape will be taken into account and protected,” he continued.

According to Dell Technologies, on average, the cost of data loss is around four times higher  for organisations using multiple data protection vendors compared to those using a single-vendor approach

The company stressed that it aims to “help organisations address the ever-evolving IT landscape with solutions that protect modern workloads with a singular approach.”

To this end, it highlighted some of its newest software and managed services offerings. In a nutshell, these include :

• Dell EMC PowerProtect Data Manager adds Transparent Snapshots to give organisations a new and unique way to protect their VMware virtual machines at scale. By simplifying and automating VM image-level backups and requiring less infrastructure, Transparent Snapshots deliver up to five times faster backups and up to a five-time reduction in VM latency, helping organisations ensure availability of VM data effectively and efficiently.

• Dell EMC PowerProtect appliances with Smart Scale helps organisations manage multiple data protection appliances at exabyte scale, allowing IT staff to make informed decisions about their capacity needs and keep up with data growth. With Smart Scale, customers can configure multiple appliances as a single pool giving them the ability to see and manage large data sets in one entity—as many as 32 PowerProtect appliances and more than three exabytes of logical capacity. Organisations can maximise resources and save costs with proactive monitoring and simplified management of backup data.

• Dell Technologies Managed Services for Cyber Recovery Solution helps organisations drive consistent operations and reduce risk by having Dell experts manage day-to-day cyber recovery vault operations and support recovery activities. These managed services build on Dell's portfolio of cyber recovery consulting, deployment, and support services, helping customers protect and manage this critical capability.