Veritas report reveals “Dark data” growth as a cause of concern

UAE organizations need to classify 88 percent of their “dark data,” to drive digital transformation and digital business success, industry experts announced today during the Veritas Vision Solution Day UAE event today.

One of the most alarming business trends is the exponential growth in data, and especially “dark data,” or data that is unquantified and likely obsolete or trivial.

Data management leader Veritas’ Databerg report shows that UAE organizations store only 12 percent of critical data. The rest, 88 percent, remains “dark data.”

As data grows exponentially, the Databerg report results show that UAE CIOs need data availability, protection, and insights everywhere, argues Condo Protego, the UAE-based IT infrastructure and information management consultancy.

“In the UAE, only 12 percent of critical data being stored underlines the first and most important step in digital transformation: organizations need to classify their data,” said Praj Calthorpe, Deputy General Manager, Condo Protego, a Veritas Platinum Partner. “UAE CIOs should try to reduce the amount of ‘dark data’ to as little as possible.”

Additional report findings include that about 50 percent of the data stored by UAE organizations is stored on legacy tape and primary storage. Only 55 percent of UAE organizations said they can recover from a cyberattack within 24 hours.

“The second step for UAE organizations is to move from outdated tape storage to on-premise long-term retention,” added Praj Calthorpe. “Long-term retention can provide always-available data, and optimize costs, compliance, and security.”

During the event, hundreds of Veritas’ leading Middle East customers will be able to learn about key topics such as cloud migration, digital compliance, data resilience, and modern workloads. Keynote speakers are led by Greg Hughes, CEO, Veritas.