ActionFront Data Recovery Labs: Evans Research Finds 51% of Businesses Have Suffered Data Loss; Medium, Large Corporations and SAN Users Most Likely to Report Lost Data.

Business Editors

TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 1, 2002

ActionFront Data Recovery Labs today announced the findings of an Evans Research Corporation end-user study of Canadian Data Storage Users regarding data loss and recovery.

ActionFront decided to participate in the Evans study after seeing a dramatic increase in the demand for complex data recoveries: recovering data from failed servers and backups and corrupted databases. ActionFront defines data loss as "The sudden inability to access any data from a previously functioning computer system or backup" and data recovery as "The act of obtaining usable data from downed computers and backups and corrupted data files".

Just over half, or 51% of the respondents reported experiencing data loss. Medium and large companies were more likely to report lost data than smaller companies. SAN users were more likely to report lost data than NAS users.

The results indicated that most users suffered from multiple causes of data loss. While "disk crash" was the most common cause cited, other significant problems included "database corruption", "restore failure", "tape failure", "tape overwrite", "controller failure" and "O/S re-install".

Data loss was consistent across all Operating Systems with the exception of Netware. Netware users showed significantly less data loss than users of other Operating Systems.

On the bright side, of those companies that used a Data Recovery vendor, 87% indicated that they were happy with the service they received.

Nick Majors, president of ActionFront, stated, "Properly installed and maintained Networked Data Storage and Backup provides good protection against most data loss scenarios. However, all data storage systems are vulnerable to threats such as natural disasters (flood, fire, explosions, etc.), power problems, ignored device failure and human error. Even though only a small percentage of systems fail and need data recovery, with the growth of the data storage market, a small percentage means significant business for ActionFront. Computer users who want to prevent data loss or be prepared to deal with a data loss situation should visit ActionFront.com and download the Data Emergency Guide."

ActionFront Data Recovery Labs recovers information from downed computers and backups. Serving thousands of personal and business customers each year, ActionFront retrieves lost data from all types of digital media, including hard drives, tapes, floppies, optical disks, network servers, RAID, NAS, SAN and tape libraries, and from corrupted SQL, Oracle, and Exchange Server file sets. In addition to fast turn-around in-lab services, ActionFront Critical Response teams are available 24/7 to restore mission-critical operations.

ActionFront, the only data recovery company in the world to be certified to the ISO 9001:2000 standard, serves customers from locations in Atlanta, Buffalo, N.Y., Santa Clara, Calif., Toronto, and Tokyo.

About Evans Research

Evans Research Corporation (ERC) based in Toronto, ON, is a privately owned Canadian company. Since its inception in 1971, ERC has provided authoritative market research and information services designed specifically to meet the marketing and strategic planning requirements of firms in the Canadian high-technology marketplace. For further information on Evans Research or if you wish to receive more information on this report, please contact Meaghan McLarnon at Evans Research Corp.