IDG Research Survey points to need for Contingency Planning for SaaS Applications

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Iron Mountain Incorporated® IRM, the storage and information management company, revealed the results of a recent research survey with IDG Research Services to understand the level of risk associated with Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) in the enterprise, the importance of contingency planning, and the consequences experienced when a SaaS vendor does not meet expectations for application support.

Often, small SaaS providers can't answer the question "What if your servers go down?" much less the bigger question, "What if you close your doors, how do I continue operations and get my data?" SaaS providers need to earn the trust of their customers by ensuring that an application continuity plan is in place.

The survey targeted management-level employees at enterprises employing 1,000 or more people to gain their insight.

Key findings from the research include:

• SaaS has risen to 25% of the average applications portfolio (as compared to 11% in 2008);
• Half of respondents think that risks associated with SaaS are greater than those of traditional on-premises software;
• 73% of enterprises surveyed say it's "very important" or "critical" that a SaaS provider allow continued access to applications and data, even if the provider goes out of business.

Ron Piccioli, a director with Iron Mountain's Intellectual Property Management business, explains the implications of the survey results for SaaS providers. "This survey shows SaaS providers what their enterprise customers really think about the cloud. One-third of the companies surveyed have had negative past experiences with SaaS vendors, and that might make them hesitant to work with them again. We recognize that hesitancy, and have designed our solutions to mitigate risks, and give SaaS subscribers confidence that our SaaSProtect solution will safeguard their SaaS applications and data."

The report recommends that users of SaaS applications ensure that they have a business continuity plan in place that can see them through any type of crisis – including "man-made disasters" such as hacking or a server crash – that aren't covered by typical disaster recovery (DR) plans.

Download "When the Cloud Evaporates" at www.ironmountain.com/cloud-evaporates for the complete research report.

About Iron Mountain
Iron Mountain Incorporated IRM is a leading provider of storage and information management services. The company's real estate network of over 67 million square feet across more than 1,000 facilities in 36 countries allows it to serve customers around the world. And its solutions for records management, data management, document management, and secure shredding help organizations to lower storage costs, comply with regulations, recover from disaster, and better use their information. Founded in 1951, Iron Mountain stores and protects billions of information assets, including business documents, backup tapes, electronic files and medical data. Visit www.ironmountain.com for more information.

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