Symantec's recently released2012 State of Information Report has revealed how cloud computing and mobility are driving 'information sprawl' as organizations increase the level ofinformation stored and accessed outside of the firewall.
"With mobile devices and cloud giving employees access to information from nearly anywhere, we're also seeing more sensitive information living beyond the traditional IT boundaries," said Francis deSouza, group president of Enterprise Products and Services atSymantec Corp. "This iscreating concern about how to best protect this information."
Writing outside the wall
Globally, 46% of an organization's information is being stored outside of its own data center. At 53%,small and medium businesses (SMBs) outpace enterprises when it comes to information residing outside the firewall, when taking into account mobile devices and laptops. In some countries, this number rises to more than half, such as India (83%), China (60%) and Singapore (60%).
Modern technologies and information sprawl clearly has benefits, but over a quarter of businesses surveyed have experienced challenges as a result. More than one-third of businesses had experienced the exposure of confidential information as a result of lost or stolen mobile devices. Other issues arise from being unable to find what they need, with a large proportion of their information being unorganized or difficult to find. And even within the firewall, their storage utilization is at just 31%, dipping even lower outside the data center.
Mobility-driven sprawl
The surge in mobility is contributing to information sprawl given that smartphones and tablets store 14% of business information globally. For enterprises, this is 14%, compared to 11% for SMBs. This number is much higher in countries such as India (62%), Australia and New Zealand (46%) and Italy (38%).
Information accessed on mobile devices is even higher at 28% globally. Again, enterprises lead with 31%, compared to 25% for SMBs. In India, 43% of its information is being accessed on smartphones and tablets, higher than the global average and the proportion for Brazil (42%), Singapore (39%) and Malaysia (38%).