Iron Mountain Reveals Study Results That Could Generate Millions

Iron Mountain Incorporated has sponsored a white paper study through IDC. Just recently they revealed the results of the study and have found that organizations could save and be generating millions of dollars if their data archives were mined effectively. This finding effects organizations of all sizes. What’s more, organizations that can leverage their data properly are able to generate as much as $10 million more in saving and revenue.

Iron Mountain Incorporated has sponsored a white paper study through IDC. Just recently they revealed the results of the study and have found that organizations could save and be generating millions of dollars if their data archives were mined effectively. This finding effects organizations of all sizes. What’s more, organizations that can leverage their data properly are able to generate as much as $10 million more in saving and revenue.

The study revealed that businesses with well-defined data archive processes can cut costs and generate revenue by monetizing their archives. Just from saving alone, half of the companies polled stated they saved $1 million or more through risk mitigation and avoidance of litigation (the top 21% saved over $10 million). And 44% of the organizations in the study cut enough costs to save $1 million or more (with 18% saving over $10 million). The revenue numbers look similar with 39% of the companies generating $1 million or more and 15% generating over $10 million ($7.5 million in revenue generation was the average). 

Interestingly, most companies feel they are maximizing the data archives, 76% believe so. This leaves a rather large market to be captured by data archive analysis solutions. Not only that, the 24% that see a need to leverage their data archive more effectively think they can gain 2 to 5 times the value they are currently getting. And the study may just prove them correct. 

More key findings and recommendations:

• More data, more problems: Most companies maintain six or more electronic archives, storing a range of structured and unstructured data.
• Process makes perfect: 88% of organizations lack a uniform process for archiving across data types, making it hard to identify and access important information when needed.
• Organizations panic when confronting information overload: Without a clear process and pressure from the top to implement Big Data programs, more than 40% of organizations simply archive everything to avoid investing time and resources upfront to determine what’s truly important.
• Unclear archiving processes make data unusable: Over time, companies archiving everything quickly amass “data swamps,” making data hard to find when needed, as opposed to the “data lakes” many businesses aspire to create with a crystal clear data archiving strategy for quick and easy information retrieval.
• Appoint a Chief Data Officer to oversee and derive value from the data archive, while working closely with the Chief Operating and Chief Information Officers to set long-term business and data strategies.
• Develop Information Maps of all data sources and repositories (and their value) across the organization.
• Implement a holistic, consistent archiving strategy that addresses data retention schedules, use cases, the value of data, necessary accessibility and archive costs.
• Consider working with a third party vendor with specific expertise to help optimize your archiving solution while freeing up internal IT resources to focus on more strategic and innovative work.

Iron Mountain main site

IDC main site

The white paper can be downloaded here

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