A new independent international survey commissioned by Arcserve has revealed that IT decision makers are more concerned about having access to their corporate data than losing personal photos, their wedding rings or holiday entitlement.
The survey, carried out by Vanson Bourne, asked five hundred IT decision makers in France, Germany, the UK and the US to rank 24/7 access to business-critical data, one month of holiday entitlement, personal photos and their wedding rings in order of importance.
38% of all respondents said that ensuring they can access company data at all times is their highest priority, followed by their wedding rings (24%), holiday entitlement (19%) and personal photos (18%).
The survey also revealed major differences between the individual countries. Nearly a third of UK-based IT decision makers (31%) put personal photos in the number one spot, followed by corporate data (28%) and their wedding rings (26%). Only 15% consider their holiday entitlement to be more important than the other options.
In the US, the highest priority for IT decision makers is their wedding rings at 31%. Like in the UK, corporate data comes second at 29%, followed by holiday entitlement (22%) and personal photos (19%).
The results from continental Europe paint a different picture. In both France and Germany, over half of the respondents (52% and 55% respectively) said that making sure their corporate data was always available and accessible was more important than their wedding rings, personal photos or holiday entitlement.
Pat Clarke, Vice President, Sales, EMEA / APAC at Arcserve, said, “This survey demonstrates the importance of corporate data to today’s IT decision makers and ensuring that information is permanently available. Especially in France and Germany, IT professionals seem to be under severe pressure with over half of those surveyed indicating that data availability is their number one priority. While these results may simply be a reflection of natural cultural differences, they could also be an indication of actual gaps in the market place offering the industry vendors growth opportunities.”
