Email and Messaging Lead Enterprise SaaS Adoption: Survey

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The good news, at least for cloud providers, is that organizations are increasingly relying on the cloud to conduct business. The bad news is that their users are having a tough time holding onto their data.

In a survey of over 1,000 IT professionals in the U.S. and U.K., Spanning, an EMC subsidiary that specializes in software-as-a-service (SaaS) data backup, found that cloud email and messaging were top services (50 percent) they have already deployed or plan to deploy within the next 12 months. The study also found that financial, human resources and customer relationship management (CRM) cloud apps are in high demand.

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Spanning’s findings are encouraging for enterprise SaaS vendors, but meanwhile, their customers are wrestling with data loss.

The leading cause of SaaS application data loss was accidental deletion by users (70 percent U.S., 66 percent U.K.). User error, not hackers, disgruntled employees or company insiders with malicious intent, is the main reason users may find that their cloud CRM records are missing or their inboxes have been mysteriously emptied out. In total, 43 percent of organizations in the U.S. and 41 percent in the U.K. suffered data loss from SaaS applications.

Fortunately, the vast majority of businesses recognize the importance of SaaS data backups, observed Jeff Erramouspe, vice president and general manager of Spanning. “This survey not only validates the accelerating adoption of SaaS, but also that U.S. and U.K. IT professionals understand the importance of having a backup and recovery strategy for SaaS application data with only 7 percent and 8 percent, respectively, not planning or using any form of backup and recovery for their SaaS applications,” he said in a statement.

Just don’t expect cloud application providers to bail users out when they mistakenly delete crucial business data.

“When it comes to SaaS data protection, however, the survey shows misplaced confidence. SaaS providers are not responsible for recovery of data lost due to user error, yet that continues to be its leading cause,” cautioned Erramouspe. “It demonstrates the need for cloud-to-cloud backup and restore solutions.”

Generally, enterprises expect their SaaS providers to provide backup and recovery services (49 percent U.S., 42 percent U.K.). About a third of organizations are currently using cloud-to-cloud backup and recovery solutions or plan to use them within the next 12 months.

Pedro Hernandez is a contributing editor at Datamation. Follow him on Twitter @ecoINSITE.

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.