Enterprises More Likely to Adopt Online Backup, Survey Says

By Mary Jander, June 19, 2008 4:10 PM

The bigger the company, the more likely it is to procure online backup services.

That's part of what turned up in as-yet-unpublished results of an April 2008 survey of 325 U.S.-based respondents, conducted by research company In-Stat.

"It looks as though as size goes up, so does adoption," says In-Stat analyst Jeff Jernigan. Of respondents surveyed, 7 percent of those from companies with fewer than 100 employees reported using online backup services; 20 percent of those from firms with over 100 reported using them.

Similarly, 20 percent working for companies with 100 to 1,000 employees reported using online backup services, while 23 percent of those from firms with over 1,000 employees reported using the services.These findings run counter to suppositions in some quarters, which have attributed the heaviest online backup use to SMBs. A while back, some thought that online backup just wasn't secure or manageable enough for enterprise use. And in a Byte and Switch poll conducted last February, more respondents reported using online backup services at home than at work.

In-Stat's results indicate, however, that enterprise customers are holding the reins when it comes to the future of online backup. When respondents who do not use online backup services yet were asked whether they'd consider it, positive responses definitely trended upward with the size of the employee census: Sixteen percent of firms with one to four employees reported an interest; 25 percent of those with 5 to 100 employees were interested; and 33 percent of those with 100 to 1,000 employees reported interest. But 48 percent of firms with over 1,000 employees said they'd consider online backup services.

Table 1: Size of Company Compared to Use of Online Backup Services

In-Stat did not ask respondents about specific categories of online backup, nor did the company ask them to name or judge any service providers, Jernigan says.

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