The Backup Storage Market

Backup storage is storage hardware that’s used for storing backup data and the software required for managing the copies and performing disaster recovery.

Storage dedicated to backup is usually separate from other storage devices, both physical and virtual, to ensure data security in case of disasters.

See below to learn all about the global backup storage market:

Backup storage market

The backup storage market is part of the database, storage, and backup market, which was estimated to be valued at $116.4 billion in 2020. It’s forecast to maintain a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.8% from 2020 to 2027, reaching an estimated value of $151 billion by the end of it.

Regionally, the global backup storage market is segmented as follows:

• The U.S. market is estimated at $34.2 billion in 2020
• The Chinese market is forecast for a CAGR of 3.6%, reaching $26.9 billion by 2027
• Japan and Canada are forecast to grow at a CAGR of 3.5% and 3.2%
• Within Europe, Germany is projected to maintain one of the highest CAGRs at 3.7%
• The rest of the European market is projected to reach $16.9 billion 

By industry, the market is led by the following sectors:

• Banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI)
• Telecommunications
• Consumer goods and retail
• Media and entertainment
• Health care and life sciences
• Government 

Usage of backup storage

While having adequate and dedicated backup storage solutions is essential — and for some industries, required by law — 29% of the businesses reported suffering data losses that led to unplanned downtime.

“The findings of this year’s ‘World Backup Day Survey’ reveal some notable contradictions between consumer beliefs and practical choices as well as an interesting contrast between the value people and businesses place on their data’s value and the steps they take to protect it,” says Acronis in a post.

“While almost all consumers and businesses backed up their devices this year, significant portions still lost data.”

Backup storage features

When it comes to selecting the appropriate infrastructure solution for performing regular backups and on-demand disaster recovery, there are multiple approaches to data backups:

Full data backup

A full data backup is an ideal approach for a complete copy of the files available at all times at a secondary location. This type encompasses the entirety of the data in the environment, from applications and settings to databases and operating systems.

It’s best used for highly critical data, as it duplicates it in full and moves it to an alternate storage location, regularly updating any changes.

The downside of only using full data backup is its size, as it’s known to quickly overload storage space and requires significant amounts of time to perform.

Differential data backup

Differential data backup is a less-intensive approach than a full backup. Instead of duplicating and relocating the entirety of an environment’s data at every update, differential backups only back up files and folders that changed.

This type is ideal for highly variable data that would require frequent updates to the primary backup server.

Compared to other types of backup, differential data backup is more prone to failure and the setup process is more complex.

Incremental data backup

An incremental data backup is a more efficient approach to differential backup. Instead of backing up the complete file that was changed, incremental backups concern themselves with the changed increments themselves. This takes up less storage space and requires less time.

Similarly, this is ideal for data environments that regularly change.

With each update, this approach creates new backup files, which could drastically increase the amount of time needed to perform a recovery.

“Among those who have ever backed up all data on their computer, about 42% use an external hard drive or NAS device for their primary backup, with the balance using the cloud as their primary backup method,” says Tom Coughlin, president of Coughlin Associates, in a post at Forbes that cites a survey.

“For those who use local storage for backing up their data, either as the primary or secondary backup, there are many choices in the market.”

Benefits of backup storage

Performing regular backups to both critical and non-critical data is important for businesses, regardless of size or industry.

Some notable benefits of backup storage include:

• Mitigate damages from cyber attacks
• Minimize drawbacks from natural disasters
• Strengthen customer and stakeholder trust
• Enabled reliable disaster recovery
• Compliance with regulatory requirements
• Simplify infrastructure scalability and migration

Backup storage use cases

The following few case studies highlight the backup storage solutions used by organizations in different industries:

Revolut

Revolut is a financial company offering multi-currency cards, global transfers, and currency exchanges. With more than 20 million customers across 35 countries, Revolut handles an average of 250 million financial transactions every month.

With an upward growth trend, Revolut was looking to scale sustainability, building a reliable infrastructure for the convenience of both their customers and engineers. Turning to Google Cloud, Revolut decided on Google Compute Engine for their backup needs in particular.

“Incremental snapshotting is my favorite Google Compute Engine feature. With the incremental feature, only the initial snapshot is big,” says Vlad Yatsenko, founder and CTO, Revolut.

“The subsequent snapshots are much more efficient in terms of time and storage. Instead of backups lasting up to 20 hours, we now get a snapshot in around five minutes.”

Working with Google Cloud, Revolut is now able to snapshot terabytes’ worth of databases within minutes, enable the flexibility needed for multiple-times-a-day deployment, and keep the data of sensitive projects secure and private.

Camel Group

Camel Group is a leading manufacturer of lead-acid batteries with more than 6,000 employees.

Camel Group was manually backing up their data from various platforms. However, with an estimated 18% data growth every year for the past decade, they needed a more automated and reliable solution.

Reaching out to Commvault Systems, Camel Group deployed the Commvault Complete Backup & Recovery solution for all their systems in the public and private cloud.

“Commvault is simple and easy to use. We were also impressed with the speed to backup and restore our data, giving us confidence that we can support the entire manufacturing operations with minimal interruption,” says Weikang Yu, head of information center, Camel Group.

“This helped to ensure timely delivery of information, increase production efficiency, and enhance customer satisfaction.”

Working with Commvault, Camel Group was able to eliminate the IT team’s hours dedicated to manual backup. Instead, they automatically back up data with no downtime.

Ryanair

Dublin-based Ryanair is a low-cost air carrier, with flights connecting countries across Europe.

Ryanair was reliant on tape storage backups that were performed in-house before being shipped out to an archival service. However, that resulted in time-consuming backup and disaster recovery processes that the company couldn’t afford at their rate of growth.

Switching to AWS, Ryanair started using AWS Storage Gateway’s Tape Gateway with cloud data storage in Amazon’s S3 Glacier and Amazon S3 Glacier Deep Archive. 

“The reason we moved to AWS was the unreliability of physical tape. I’d say over the past five or six years that I’ve been in Ryanair, we do, not hundreds of restores, but tens of restores a month. Probably four of those restores have failed and that wasn’t acceptable to management,” says Paul Walsh, senior systems engineer, Ryanair.

“The major benefit for us, straight off, was the reliability. That was the number one reason I was told to move to AWS and virtual tape library, was to no longer have that worry about the restore not working.”

Switching to AWS, Ryanair was able to save 65% on their backup costs, eliminate the need for in-house and outsourced tape maintenance, and deal with orders and payments of physical tapes.

Backup storage providers

Some of the leading providers of backup storage in the global market include:

• Broadcom
• Hitachi Vantara
• Dell Technologies
• FalconStor 
• Symantec 
• Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)
• NetApp
• IBM
• Veritas 
• Commvault