More Than 75% of U.S. Companies Say Data Infrastructure Falling Short as Data Security, Sustainability Challenges Surge

Hitachi Vantara survey finds business leaders express concern over infrastructure resilience, as data storage needs expect to double by 2025

Nearly 60% of U.S. companies are overwhelmed by the amount of data they manage and 76% are concerned their current infrastructure will be unable to scale to meet upcoming demands, according to a new survey from Hitachi Vantara, the modern infrastructure, data management and digital solutions subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE: 6501). New and exciting data-intensive technologies and applications like generative AI are spurring a goldrush to greater insights, automation, and predictability, but these technologies are simultaneously exacerbating the already-strained infrastructure and hybrid cloud environments on which they run.

The Hitachi Vantara Modern Data Infrastructure Dynamics Report reveals that most companies expect their data needs to nearly double in the next two years, and that both protecting and managing that rapid growth of data in an actionable and sustainable way are further complicating efforts.

The company conducted the global survey of 1,288 C-level executives and IT decision makers, including 308 in the United States, to quantify the extent to which organizations are struggling to manage their data infrastructure in a secure and sustainable way.

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Key U.S. findings include:

• Respondents say that data is their most valuable asset but are concerned about the security and resilience of their data infrastructure; 71% are concerned they cannot detect a data breach in time to protect data.
• 65% of respondents are concerned over whether their organization’s data infrastructure is resilient enough to recover data from ransomware attacks.
  • 27% of respondents admitted that important data was not backed up and 35% had experienced data inaccessibility due to storage outages.
• 66% of IT leaders currently measure their data center’s energy consumption; however, 32% acknowledged that their data infrastructure uses too much energy and nearly half (46%) admitted their sustainability policies don’t address the impact of storing unused data.

“Part of the problem is that many companies are storing data without the right strategy or data infrastructure tools in place. In fact, our study revealed that a significant number of companies store every piece of data, just in case, and more than half of their data is ‘dark,’ or never used,” said Bharti Patel, senior vice president, Product Engineering, Hitachi Vantara. “As emerging technologies like Generative AI contribute to doubling the volume of data expected in the next two years, businesses need to find the right balance between scalability, sustainability, and security. You can’t just add more racks to a data center, it’s not eco-friendly. You can’t organize efficiently if you are not properly storing, quantifying, and categorizing every piece of data that comes in.”

A Hybrid Cloud World

The study also shed light on the future of data storage, with data spread across the hybrid cloud model leveraging a mix of public/private cloud, co-location and on premises expected to persist. For U.S. business leaders, the study found data stored in an already established hybrid cloud with percentages of data center workloads located almost evenly between the public cloud (24%), private cloud (25%), on premises (25%), and co-located/managed services (22%). Notably, the percentages were expected to largely stay the same in the coming two years.

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Prioritizing Infrastructure Modernization Can Help Address Challenges

Respondents were asked how important modernizing data infrastructure is to their current business transformation strategy. Of note, 59% of respondents were designated ‘infrastructure leaders,’ and this group considered modernizing data infrastructure to be very important. As a result, these leaders were 64% more likely to say that their infrastructure is resilient enough to recover all data from a ransomware attack and 16% more likely to say that their organization would be able to detect a breach in time to protect their data. Leaders were also more likely to recognize the importance of working with third-party vendors for security, storage and application services.

“Organizations that proactively tackle infrastructure modernization are taking important steps to ensure the resilience and reliability of their data infrastructure,” said Patel. “To succeed with infrastructure modernization, businesses should consider state-of-the-art platforms that offer enhanced performance, reliability, and protection, while also reducing space and energy requirements in a cost-effective and secured manner. By prioritizing these critical areas, organizations can unlock valuable insights from their data, while fostering sustainability and gaining a significant competitive advantage.”