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Research Shows It Depends on What SaaS Looks Like

Given the exponential rate at which data is growing and the siloed nature of legacy infrastructures, many IT organizations are finding data management to be increasingly challenging, time consuming, and costly. Just how time-consuming and costly? To answer that question and probe alternatives that may help address data management challenges in 2021, Cohesity commissioned a survey of 500 IT decision makers in the United States from midsize businesses ($100 million to $1 billion in revenue) and enterprises ($1+ billion in revenue) across eight different industries. Here are highlights from some of the findings.

IT Is Grappling With Data Management and Tighter Budgets

According to the research covered in our report, 40 percent of IT’s time each week, on average, is spent installing, maintaining, and managing data infrastructure, leaving little time for other business-critical activities. Twenty-two percent of respondents claim their IT team spends 50-75 percent of time each week on these tasks. So, what does this boil down to in actual time? That means some IT teams are spending on average five months per year grappling with data silos and complex infrastructure — often legacy and expensive infrastructure in our view — simply to meet basic service levels, rather than working on more valuable tasks.

Time is not the only thing in short supply, so is money. 70 percent of respondents say they are having to reduce their IT budgets in the next 12 months. While the average budget cut is 16 percent, which is not negligible, some IT decision makers are citing cuts as high as 50 percent. With those kinds of reductions, it’s more important than ever that IT focus time and money on value-added activities rather than infrastructure management that fuels mass data fragmentation.

Seeking Another Way to Simplify Data Infrastructure Complexity

At a time when organizations want to simplify IT operations, be more cost efficient, and do more with data, what’s the path forward in 2021? Well, many are considering Data Management as a Service (DMaaS). With a DMaaS solution, organizations don’t have to manage data infrastructure — it is managed for them. DMaaS is incredibly comprehensive. It provides organizations with easy access to backup and recovery, disaster recovery, archiving, file and object services, dev/test provisioning, data governance, and security — all through one vendor in SaaS model. There are many reasons survey respondents like what DMaaS has to offer. Let’s check out a few top line thoughts.

Of the 500 IT decision makers surveyed, 89 percent say they are likely to consider deploying a DMaaS solution, at least in part, due to budget cuts. They like the cost predictability DMaaS could provide. The overwhelming majority of respondents believe DMaaS can help their organizations derive more value from their data. In addition, respondents who stated that their IT teams spend time each week managing IT infrastructure, believe those teams will save 39 percent of their time (weekly) if they had a DMaaS solution in place.

Mid-sized businesses are also very interested in DMaaS. On average, midsize organizations state they’ve lost nearly 40 percent of deals to larger organizations, who have a greater ability to manage and derive value from their data. Ninety-one percent of midsize respondents think DMaaS will enable them to compete more effectively against those larger enterprises.

What Is Holding IT Organizations Back From Embracing SaaS for Data Management?

Although organizations see DMaaS as a very viable alternative to address data challenges, they are not all-in on the current SaaS data management market. On the contrary, many say that the promise of DMaaS is not reflected by what is largely available today. Most SaaS-based solutions are too limited in scope, offering only one aspect of data management, usually Backup as a Service (BaaS). Respondents largely view these BaaS vendors as “one-trick ponies.” If the vendor only offers backup, 70 percent are fearful they would have to procure services from multiple vendors to completely manage their data, and many respondents fear that will increase workloads, fail to reduce costs, and exacerbate challenges with mass data fragmentation.

Many respondents also want the choice: while SaaS is attractive, they also want to be able to work with vendors that allow them to manage some data directly. For them, it’s not either-or, it’s both. They want to be able to manage data their way. The majority agrees that with most vendors, this type of choice is not readily available.

Capitalizing on the Enthusiasm for DMaaS

In 2021, it’s clear that enterprise and midsize organizations can have their cake and eat it too when it comes to data management and reducing IT complexity. However, respondents say cobbling together a series of one-trick-pony SaaS-based solutions from a multitude of vendors is not the path forward. They believe that will just make the problem worse. Instead, they want a comprehensive DMaaS solution that can remove the twin burdens of time and cost from the shoulders of IT teams. And, they also want to work with vendors that give customers complete choice when it comes to deployment and management options.

What Can DMaaS Do For Your Organization?

To find out what a modern DMaaS solution is and how it can address current data management challenges while delivering visibility and control, download our latest research, State of Data Management Report: Data Management as a Service. You’ll get more details on our survey and have the opportunity to evaluate the current market and look for answers to your own data management questions.