Data is the lifeblood of your business.
You need it to provide customer service, make sales and generally run your workflow.
When your business experiences catastrophic data loss, this can lead to disruptions and revenue losses that bring down your business.
An Arcserve study revealed that 76% of businesses suffered a major data loss event in 2022. Many of them never reopened afterward.
Therefore, it’s clear that safeguarding your data is a matter of survival, which is why we’ll be looking at some essential data backup statistics today to help you create an excellent data backup and recovery strategy for your business.
With this information, you’ll leverage the latest and effective data backup trends to secure vital information in order to protect your workflow from disruptions.
In this article, we’ll discuss data backup & recovery statistics that will surprise you in 2024 and help you prevent costly data loss events for your business.
Let’s get started.
I. Cloud data backup statistics
The cloud is a great place to back up your data.
This is because you get a secondary and much safer and reliable repository that you can turn to access data in case of unexpected loss regardless of time or location.
So I’ve rounded up some important cloud data backup statistics for us to explore:
1) In 2022, over 60% of all corporate data was backed up in cloud storage. This represents a remarkable improvement since 2015, when only half of businesses backed up their data in the cloud. (Source – Statista)
2) 72% of companies that have invested in cloud data backup have noticed improved productivity. When you store data in the cloud, access to information greatly increases, therefore making workers more productive. (Source – PwC)
3) 65% of businesses with cloud data backup strategies noticed significant cost savings because of it. By eliminating costly on-premise servers, you can cross off some very big operational expenses from your budget. (Source – PwC)
4) 69% of companies said the biggest benefit of backing up data in the cloud is improved customer service. This is because of how it enables customer service reps to have instant access to crucial business data. (Source – PwC)
5) 63% of companies plan to increase cloud budget allocations by at least 6%. So most businesses are seeing the potential of the cloud, when it comes to backing up data and improving information management in general. (Source – PwC)
6) 92% of organizations have a multi cloud data backup strategy in place. This is a situation whereby you rely on several cloud platforms to store different copies of the same data. (Source – Cisco)
7) 58% of businesses use between 2 to 3 public cloud platforms compared to 31% who use 4 to 10. Some of the benefits of using multiple clouds for your business include greater agility and lower data loss risk. (Source – Cisco)
8) 33% of companies cited increased operational complexity as the biggest barrier of adopting multi cloud data backup strategies. I recommend going with a service that offers cloud migration support to get around this issue. (Source – Cisco)
9) 47% of businesses said no cloud vendor lock-in is a priority when considering data backup solutions. This is a situation where you’re forced to continue with a vendor due to the high costs of leaving or incompatible data formats. (Source – Statista)
10) 76% of businesses use private cloud platforms to back up data. A private cloud server offers greater security and data control so it’s useful for storing sensitive customer information, although it tends to be more costly. (Source – Flexera)
II. Data backup & recovery market statistics
Curious about the data backup & recovery market?
With regulations tightening and forcing businesses to adopt more advanced strategies to protect customers, we’re noticing businesses investing more in data backup and protection, therefore fueling rapid growth of the market.
For more information, here are some crucial data backup statistics about this market:
11) $8.5 billion was the 2021 value of the global data backup and recovery market. It’s set to increase to $15.2 billion by 2030, which means that it will almost double in size within the decade. (Source – GMR)
12) 7.3% is the compounding annual growth rate or CAGR of the banking, financial services and insurance segment. So it’s the industry exhibiting the fastest growth rate in the global data backup & recovery market as things stand. (Source – MMR)
13) 35% of the planet’s data backup and recovery market is based in North america. It is therefore the region with the largest market share, probably fueled by strict regulatory rules and government policies about protecting consumer data. (Source – IndustryArc)
14) 23% is the CAGR of Europe’s cloud data backup market between 2024 to 2030. So this makes it one of the fastest growing market segments, and it’s another region to watch alongside the US. (Source – GVR)
15) Europe accounts for 24.4% of the global data backup market. If we segment the market by geography, this makes it the region that brings in the second largest revenue after the United States. (Source – GVR)
16) 27.15% is the CAGR of the data disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS) market of the Asia-Pacific region. DRaaS is a cloud computing service model that offers you a failover in case of data loss. (Source – Inkwood Research)
17) Large enterprises accounted for 70% of the total data backup market in 2023. It may be because larger organizations typically have more financial firepower compared to small and medium-sized businesses. (Source – GVR)
18) The public cloud segment accounted for 55% of the cloud data backup market in 2023. It means that public cloud data backup solutions are more popular than private cloud, probably because of price sensitivity. (Source – GVR)
19) 10.92% is the CAGR of the personal data recovery market, which is valued at approximately 370 million in 2024. These data backup statistics show that we’re beginning to pay more attention to protecting personal data (Source – MRF)
20) $8.03 billion is the predicted market value of the data recovery market by 2031, which is over twice its 2023 size. So we can expect to see more innovative data recovery software hit the market. (Source – VMR)
III. Statistics about data backup tools and vendors
You’re spoilt for choice with data backup solutions.
From tape storage to online cloud platforms, the options are endlesses and it may be challenging to figure out the best way to backup data depending on your needs.
To help you make an informed decision, I’ve gathered this data for us to examine:
21) 15% of production storage devices are not logged at all. Device logs give you insights about events that occurred on a storage device, including who accessed what and when, which is crucial to data security. (Source – Continuity)
22) 14 is the amount of risks that your typical enterprise storage & backup system has. So in as much as companies are backing up their data, questions abound about whether this data is safe. (Source – Continuity)
23) Out of 14 data backup device risks, 3 of them are high or critical risks. Risks here entail a data backup storage device lacking password protection and the right level of encryption, among other vulnerabilities. (Source – Continuity)
24) The enterprise backup and recovery software market was valued at $10 billion in 2023, and it grew by 5.1% within that year. These data backup statistics prove businesses are investing more in enterprise data backup tools. (Source – Gartner)
25) With a revenue growth rate of 16.7% in 2023, Veeam Software is the most popular enterprise data protection platform. In addition to growing faster than the rest, It also holds the largest market share. (Source – IDC)
26) Amazon Web Services (AWS) controlled 31% of the entire cloud infrastructure services market in the world in the first quarter of 2024. This made it the most popular cloud backup storage service. (Source – Statista)
27) Microsoft Azure ranks second in the cloud infrastructure services market, with a market share of 25%. Azure Backup is very popular because it offers you a secure, simple and cost-effective data backup solution. (Source – Statista)
28) 10% of the cloud infrastructure services market goes to Google Cloud in 2024. This is a cloud-based document storage solution that you can use as a personal data backup platform or to store crucial business files. (Source – Statista)
29) 56.15% of people use data recovery software to retrieve photos, with 33.07% using these tools to get back videos. Going by these statistics, these are the two main types of data that users recover. (Source – EaseUS)
30) 1.87% of people use data recovery tools to retrieve audio files compared to 8.06% who use them to recover lost documents. So recovering audio files is the least popular use case of data recovery software. (Source – EaseUS)
IV. Frequency of data backup statistics
Backing up your data regularly is important.
It gives you more restore points to work with, and this means that in case you experience data loss for one reason or another, you’ll be able to access the most recent versions of your files.
To help us understand data backup habits, I’ve gathered the following information:
31) 20% of computer owners never back up data. This is a very risky way to live, especially if you store sensitive data on your device, because it means you may never be able to get it back. (Source – Backblaze)
32) 26% of people back up their data at least once every couple of years. Some confessed to doing it once in two years, with another significant percentage doing so once every five years. (Source – Backblaze)
33) 20% of computer owners backup their data monthly. This may work if your data changes at a similar frequency. For instance, it’s an ideal strategy if you’re a business that updates records like billing once a month. (Source – Backblaze)
34) 10% of computer owners backup their data every day. If your data changes often, this frequency is an excellent general rule of thumb to observe. However, it can be a bit of an overkill when data seldom changes. (Source – Backblaze)
35) 11% of people backup their data weekly while 13% do so yearly. A weekly schedule is much more feasible and reasonable for a business, but again this frequency depends on how volatile your data is. (Source – Backblaze)
36) 8% of Polish citizens aren’t quite sure what a data backup is or don’t know how to go about it. This is why they never make backups, therefore massively increase their risk of permanent data loss. (Source – Statista)
37) 15% of individuals said they back up their data once every 6 months, with a similar percentage doing so once every three months. When quizzed why, they said completing their data backup processes is very time-intensive. (Source – Statista)
38) 22% of people have set up automatic data backup to a cloud repository. Manually backing up your data regularly can be extremely exhausting, and automation is prudent to help you keep up this habit more effortlessly. (Source – Statista)
39) 38% of respondents said that they’ve ever lost their data because of not backing it up frequently enough. I recommend backing up your data every time it changes rather than doing so periodically. (Source – ExpressVPN)
40) 42% of French citizens back up their data daily compared to 38% of Germans These data backup statistics mean that these are the best countries in regard to back up consistency among citizens. (Source – ExpressVPN)
V. Statistics about data loss
Have you ever experienced a data loss event?
Data loss can occur for a variety of reasons, including your computer’s hard drive failing or a malicious and sophisticated cyber attack wiping out data from a storage device.
In this section, we’ll discuss some important data loss statistics you’ll find helpful:
41) 70% of businesses blame careless users as the biggest cause of their data loss. This makes human error one of the leading sources of data loss, and it’s one that businesses need to address urgently. (Source – Proofpoint)
42) 85% of companies confessed to experiencing at least one data loss incident per year. The situation is very dire for some businesses, who are experiencing up to 20 very costly data loss events annually. (Source – Proofpoint)
43) 38% of organizations have a “mature” data loss program. Having such a strategy in place is very important for your business, because it can help protect sensitive data better and identify security breaches more promptly. (Source – Proofpoint)
44) 50% of companies admitted that business disruption is one of the biggest consequences of data loss. Even a single data loss incident can bring your business to its knees, causing losses running into thousands of dollars. (Source – Proofpoint)
45) 78% of all data loss events are caused by hardware failures. Consequently, hardware issues top the charts in terms of the leading causes of data loss worldwide, which is why it’s important to inspect your hardware regularly. (Source – ExpressVPN)
46) $12 billion dollars is lost annually to data loss in the United States. This revenue goes down the drain to productivity losses, costly lawsuits against companies, and the expenses associated with recovery, among other things. (Source – ExpressVPN)
47) 85% of IT decision-makers are fearful that their organizations will lose critical data in the coming years. Aside from insider threats, they’re most concerned about data loss resulting from malicious third-parties. (Source – Connection)
48) 41% of data loss events resulted from cyber attacks in 2023. So those concerns from IT leaders are warranted, and emphasize the need for you to embrace sophisticated data protection tactics. (Source – Connection)
49) 15% of organizations experienced data loss in 2023 primarily because of natural disasters. This includes events such as floods & earthquakes, which can cause serious damage to your IT infrastructure, leading to critical data loss. (Source – Connection)
50) In 2023, 28% of companies experienced data loss due to device theft. To reduce such incidences in your business, I recommend implementing device-tracking and educating employees on device & data handling best practices. (Source – Connection)
VI. Consequences of data loss statistics
Losing important business data can be catastrophic.
It may lead to huge revenue losses and a tainted reputation that causes huge customer walkouts that may ultimately cripple and bring down your business.
To understand the repercussions of not backing up business data, I’ve curated this data for us to discuss:
51) 36% of data is completely unrecoverable after a ransomware attack. With this permanent data loss, your business may need to start from scratch to collect the data it needs to sustain operations. (Source – Veeam)
52) 56.6% of businesses that lost sensitive information experience huge revenue losses. That’s because every minute of data loss you incur can cause a downtime that results in lost sales from service outages. (Source – Statista)
53) 38.9% of companies said that the biggest consequence of data loss is a damaged reputation. When you lose sensitive customer information, trust in your business erodes, leading to customer walkouts and poor client acquisition. (Source – Statista)
54) 35.8% of organizations admitted that losing crucial data weakened their competitive positioning. With data being key to helping you understand your customers and market better, losing it can have the opposite effect. (Source – Statista)
55) 34.8% of businesses cited regulatory penalties as one of the biggest consequences of losing sensitive information. Some of these penalties include hefty fines that can reach up to $40,000 per violation. (Source – Statista)
56) 28% of companies said huge litigation expenses are a significant effect of data loss. These costs come from fighting lawsuits from scorned customers who believe your business dropped the ball with regard to data protection. (Source – Statista)
57) In 2023, the average cost of a data loss incident reached $4.45 million. This means that the average company loses a huge amount of funds every year, which is enough to effectively take you out of business. (Source – IBM)
58) The average cost of a data breach increased by 10% to reach $4.88 million in 2024. These data backup statistics paint a very worrying trend which hints that businesses aren’t learning from their mistakes. (Source – IBM)
59) 43% of data loss events involved the loss of intellectual property, which exposed well-guarded trade company secrets. This makes it easy for competitors to copy your ideas and even leads to lost business opportunities. (Source – IBM)
60) 63% of businesses confessed to increasing the cost of their services and products, following a major data loss event. They do this to try and recoup some of the revenue they lost during periods of downtime. (Source – IBM)
VII. Statistics about disaster recovery plans
What is a data or disaster recovery plan?
It refers to a formal policy that defines and standardizes what you’re supposed to do in response to a disruptive event such as a cyber attack that results in data loss.
In this section, we’ll learn more about disaster recovery plans and how they can benefit your business:
61) 95% of businesses have a disaster recovery plan in place. This is certainly among the data recovery statistics I like to see because it means we’re giving data protection the attention it deserves. (Source – SpiceWorks)
62) 23% of companies never test drive their disaster recovery plan. You may have a data recovery plan in place but it may become significantly ineffective over time, which is why you should test it often. (Source – SpiceWorks)
63) 61% of organizations don’t test their disaster recovery plan due to time constraints. From the data backup statistics I looked at, other obstacles also include insufficient resources & organizations failing to make testing a priority. (Source – SpiceWorks)
63) 65% of companies that invest in data recovery systems consider speed of recovery as a top priority. The faster you can retrieve essential data, the less downtime your business will experience. (Source – IDC)
64) 48.7% of businesses said that they plan to either supplement their existing data backup and disaster recovery solutions or replace them entirely. So it seems that current systems are falling short. (Source – IDC)
65) 45% of companies choose data recovery systems by assessing ease of use. Getting a solution with great simplicity allows you to accommodate every employee’s skill sets and negates the need to hire specialists. (Source – IDC)
66) 95% of organizations reexamined their disaster recovery plan because of the growing popularity of work from home models. With such work models, there are new data security threats and concerns to think about. (Source – IDC)
67) 35% of companies test their disaster recovery plan on a quarterly basis. This is a great general rule of thumb for you to follow to help keep your strategy effective and ahead of the curve. (Source – Statista)
68) Only 24% of enterprises have a “mature” disaster recovery plan. So while many of them might have implemented a disaster recovery plan, the truth is it that it’s all for show with many of these businesses. (Source – Arcserve)
69) 25% of businesses without a disaster recovery plan admitted that they have no plans of implementing one anytime soon. This may be because many of them are underestimating the consequences of data loss. (Source – Gartner)
70) 58% of data recovery plans fail, thereby creating huge data protection challenges for businesses. To reduce this risk, it’s important to create multiple data backups and store them in safe and separate locations. (Source – Veenam)
VIII. Statistics about tape data backups
Do businesses still use tapes to store their data?
Yes. While they have certainly fallen in popularity given the rise of online and cloud backup solutions, tape storage still remains in use as a data protection strategy by many businesses.
In this section, we’ll discuss some interesting data backup statistics about these devices:
71) 15% of companies relied on disk and tape backups as a secondary repository for crucial information in 2021. So while they may not be as popular as they were in the past, they still remain in use nonetheless. (Source – Databarracks)
72) 4% of businesses admitted to using tapes as their only data backup solution. This level of usage has remained unchanged since 2012, although we can expect a decline in the coming years as focus shifts to online storage. (Source – Databarracks)
73) 29% was the combined usage rate of disk and tape mediums for data backup in 2012. Going by the tape databack backup statistics we examined earlier, this means that they’ve gotten almost twice less popular in a decade. (Source – Databarracks)
74) 42% of companies said that their disaster recovery solution entails storing tape backups offsite. This is a wise move that keeps the secondary repository safe from data loss incidents at your primary storage location. (Source – Statista)
75) $5.14 billion was the size of the global tape storage market in 2022. So there’s still significant demand for this type of data backup, which is why the market is still alive and kicking today. (Source – Skyquest)
76) 7.8% is the CAGR of the global tape storage market between 2024 and 2031, when it will reach a value of $10.10 billion. This figure represents an approximately 200% increase from its current size. (Source – Skyquest)
77) The North America tape storage market is growing at a CAGR of 7.5%. It remains popular in this region due to the wide-spread use of tape storage for long-term data archival among public institutions. (Source – Straits Research)
78) 9.1% is the CAGR of the Asia-Pacific market, which is above the global market’s average. So it’s not only growing faster than North America, but also the fastest growing tape storage market worldwide. (Source – Straits Research)
79) The CAGR of the tape cartridges segment is 7.9%, meaning that it holds the largest market share if we group the market on the basis of components. These are dominant due to lower maintenance costs. (Source – Straits Research)
80) 9% is the CAGR of the LTO-8 or LInear Tape-Open market. LTO-8 is a type of magnetic tape data storage that provides high data transfer speeds, which is part of the reason why it’s popular for data archiving. (Source – Straits Research)
IX. Statistics about data that businesses backup
Businesses store different types of data online.
One of the most common that you may create a backup of include crucial employee records like employment contracts and important customer data such as service level agreements.
To improve our understanding of what businesses are prioritizing in terms of data types, I’ve rounding up the following data backup statistics:
81) 85% of companies say they handle digital data. However, it is the case that many of these institutions still store a good amount of information on paper records, which you can easily lose. (Source – GOV.UK)
82) 63% of enterprises said that they backup employee data. This is a great strategy that can help you observe employee record retention rules that may mandate the store of certain files for up to seven years. (Source – GOV.UK)
83) 16% of companies confessed that they use backups primarily to protect SaaS data. This entails creating data backups of important data within common business software applications like CRMs and accounting tools. (Source – Statista)
84) 90% of businesses fail to recover encrypted data. As a result, many of these businesses have to endure very costly downtimes that impede core business operations such as customer service. (Source – HYCU)
85) 61% of data breaches originate from SaaS applications. In other words, they make for the most popular attack vector of cyber attacks, which is why you need to backup and protect data in these applications. (Source – HYCU)
86) 65% of companies rated business systems data as more important than social networks and IoT. This is why we’re seeing many of them backup and encrypt data within vital business systems. (Source – Clutch.co)
87) 83% of businesses said structured data is more valuable than unstructured data. Consequently, you’ll notice that many companies tend to backup structured data more often than they do unstructured data. (Source – Clutch.co)
88) 65% of companies rated internal data as more valuable than external data, which is why they back it up more often. Internal data here entails employee records, customer information and intellectual property, among others. (Source – Clutch.co)
89) 68% of organizations confessed to creating backups to protect email data. Email is a common avenue that hackers exploit today to steal information, which is why we’re seeing many organizations backing up email data. (Source – Statista)
90) 28% of enterprises create data backups to protect research and development records. A backup strategy can help you save months or even years worth of research to help protect your investment. (Source – Statista)
X. Statistics about personal data backup & recovery
Do you back up your personal data?
Backing up your personal data is important because we’ve established that your PC and external USB drives, among other storage media, can fail out of the blues, so creating multiple copies of your information is prudent.
This is why we’ll review some crucial personal data backup statistics in this section:
91) 64% of Americans never check to see if they were the victim of a data breach, despite the fact that we spend three hours on our phones daily on average. So I blame this on ignorance or a lack of awareness. (Source – Varonis)
92) 56% of individuals don’t know how to respond to a data loss event. In such cases, I recommend changing your password, freezing your credit cards and trying to figure out what information you lost. (Source – Varonis)
93) 38% of US citizens lack any form of data breach insurance to guard against data loss events like cyber attacks. This is probably because they’re more popular with businesses than they are with individuals. (Source – US News)
94) 45% of people believe being a victim of data loss is inevitable. Some common ways data loss can occur is through the loss of personal devices, cyber security attacks and accidental data deletion. (Source – US News)
95) 63% of individuals admitted to having lost their personal digital data at least once in their lifetimes. Some of the data they lost include family photos and videos and personal documents like academic certificates. (Source – CleverFiles)
96) 70% of individuals backup their data, although only a handful do it on a regular basis. So most people seem to be aware of the need and benefits of creating a separate data backup from your primary storage. (Source – CleverFiles)
97) 8% of people who lost their data said that this happened because they were forced to format their harddrives. One of the top reasons that pushed them to wipe their hard drives clean was a cyber attack. (Source – CleverFiles)
98) 82% of Americans who’ve experienced data loss said it resulted in financial losses. From the data backup statistics I checked, this loss averaged at least $500, which is quite a significant amount. (Source – CleverFiles)
99) 45% of individuals said that personal documents like medical records and driver’s license were the most vital to back up. This is understandable considering that replacing such documents can be costly & cumbersome. (Source – Secure Data Recovery)
100) 44% of Americans, on the other hand, said that videos and photos were their most prized possessions that they’d like to protect and back up. This is because they hold great sentimental value to them. (Source – Secure Data Recovery)
Conclusion
Data loss can sometimes be unavoidable.
Your hard disk can fail, a device may be stolen, or a sophisticated cyber attack can circumvent your defenses.
Moreover, your data backup strategy can also be compromised, therefore increasing your risk of incurring irreparable and permanent data loss.
A Sophos survey revealed that 57% of businesses had their data backups compromised by a cyber attack. So it’s important to implement a great data recovery strategy to compliment your back up.
To create an additional safety net, it’s important to enforce a solid recovery plan.
Making a more informed decision to help you achieve this becomes easier with the data backup statistics we’ve discussed today, because they pinpoint recovery strategies and tools that have excellent recovery success rates.
By implementing the data strategies and tools, you can ensure that your business can get back up and running quickly even after data loss and compromised data backups.
