Kroll Ontrack, a provider of data recovery and ediscovery products and services, has published findings from a recent study of over 706 professionals who provide IT services. The respondents offered an international view of the data recovery industry, with representatives from the United States, UK, Africa and mainland Europe.
The majority of IT professionals who responded (72 per cent) reported that data recovery is often tackled in-house when their partners perceive the process to be easy and will only seek further support from data recovery experts when the data loss is severe. According to Kroll Ontrack, depending on the type of data loss experienced, the initial recovery attempts may inadvertently cause further damage to the media, reducing the likelihood of a complete recovery. Professional data recovery is a complex process and requires specialist tools and techniques to ensure that the data has the best possible chance of being recovered.
Phil Bridge, Managing Director at Kroll Ontrack said, “when data recovery services are sought, 62 per cent of the time backup solutions are requested, too. In these scenarios, customers are more aware of the fragility of their data and are keen to better protect themselves. For our partners, this has presented an opportunity for increased revenues by offering backup solutions as well as replacement hardware.”
The study found that, on average, 36 per cent of respondents receive an average of one data recovery request per month, with 18 per cent receiving over fifty requests per year. Overall, laptops and desktops were reported as the focus of most data recovery requests (33 per cent), with portable USB drives a close second (24 per cent). Servers represented 16 per cent of data recovery requests and mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, represented the lowest frequency of data recovery jobs at 11 per cent.
When asked about the benefits of offering data recovery services, respondents claimed that in addition to data recovery complementing their existing portfolio of services, building client trust and maintaining relationships were significant benefits for them. Respondents identified the top three attributes a third party data recovery supplier should offer, if they were to choose to work with them, high success rate (25 per cent), competitive pricing (24 per cent) and quick turnaround (22 per cent).
Phil added, “these global findings mirror the results from the local IT service industry in the UK. Expert data recovery is still not being used to its fullest potential. There is an opportunity for IT service providers: offered alongside a wide range of existing services, data recovery has the potential to be both profitable and aid in better relations between IT vendors and their customers.”
