UAE Firms Lose $2.8bn Due To Data Loss And Downtime

Data loss and downtime have cost UAE firms about $2.8 billion in the last 12 months, according to a new study by EMC.

The UAE ranks 24th globally in terms of enterprises’ maturity and approach towards data protection, with just 34 per cent of organisations considering data protection as important, the study found.

EMC also said that 100 per cent of businesses that were polled in the UAE rank in the bottom two categories for data protection.

The survey also showed that 77 per cent of businesses in the UAE have experienced either data loss or a downtime in the last 12 months. Meanwhile, the average business experienced 22 hours of unexpected downtime in the last 12 months.

Loss of revenue, falling employee productivity, missing out on new business opportunities and losing customer confidence were some of the consequences of disruptions.

Almost 41 per cent of the UAE firms polled said that they suffered from a loss of revenue due to disruption while 36 per cent said that they saw a fall in employee productivity.

The survey also noted that new business trends such as big data, mobile and hybrid cloud created new challenges for data protection.

In the UAE, around 46 per cent of those polled rated big data, mobile and hybrid cloud as difficult to protect while the majority do not have a disaster recovery plan in place if they lose data through these channels.

“This research highlights the misalignment between the consequence of downtime and data loss and the approach towards preventing or even recovering from an incident,” said Fady Richmany, senior regional director, Data Protection and Availability Division in Turkey, Eastern Europe, Africa, and Middle East, EMC

“With 77 per cent of organisations in the UAE reported to have suffered some form of downtime and data loss and 46 per cent of enterprises feeling challenged to protect hybrid cloud, big data and mobile, it’s understandable that almost all of them lack the confidence that data protection will be able to meet future business challenges.”

The trend in the wider MENA region was also found to be similar to that in the UAE. An earlier study by EMC revealed that over half of the new data generated in the MENA region is not protected.