Sizable Increase in CDP Awareness Creates New Opportunities and Challenges for Vendors and End-Users, IDC Reveals

Business Wire, Sept 20, 2006

FRAMINGHAM, Mass. -- Since June 2005, when the first IDC survey on continuous data protection (CDP) was completed, the dynamics of the market have been affected by the entrance of large vendors offering CDP solutions as well as by merger and consolidation activities among market players. These changes significantly boosted CDP technology awareness among end users - 61% of respondents in 2006 indicated they have a good understanding of CDP, compared with 25% in 2005 - creating new opportunities and challenges for both vendor and end-user communities.

"The challenge for vendors is to capitalize on the greater awareness of CDP technology and educate end users on the benefits of CDP and the fit into a comprehensive data protection plan," said Rhoda Phillips, research manager for IDC's Storage Software group.

"On the other hand, end users should do their homework, estimating ROI on integrating the CDP technology into their datacenters," added Natalya Yezhkova, research manager for IDC's Storage Systems group. "They should understand the changes in and requirements for storage hardware and infrastructure to run CDP products most effectively."

Other key findings include:

--There was a shift to the next phase in the market potential for CDP to the "early majority" adopters, who grasp the advantages of the CDP technology.

--Customers plan to spend a larger percentage of their 2006 data protection budgets on CDP than they spent in 2005.

IDC's new study, Continuous Data Protection: Capturing the Changes in End-User Awareness and Technology Adoption Life Cycle (IDC #203251), discusses some of the results of a survey on continuous data protection (CDP) that was completed in April 2006 and compares the changes in end-user awareness of CDP with results from an earlier IDC survey completed in June 2005.

To purchase this document, call IDC's Sales hotline at 508-988-7988 or email sales@idc.com.

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