Press Centre

IDC Sees Great Opportunities In China's Disaster Recovery Market In 2009 And Beyond

Source: IDC中国  Date: 2009-01-21

Beijing, January 21, 2009--According to IDC's recent "China Business Continuity and Data Recovery Solutions 2008: Opportunities and Challenges" report (Doc Number: CN221108Q), the China disaster recovery solution (software and service) market reached US$483.1 million in 2008, a 29.9% increase over 2007. IDC's study shows that this market has matured over the past few years following rapid growth, with disaster recovery solutions now gaining widespread adoption.

"Information technology has been deployed extensively in the government sector as well as the financial and telecommunication industries for data integration and business applications. The next step is therefore to provide for business continuity and the maintenance of information security in these organizations," says Ting Yang, Senior Analyst of IDC's China Software & Service. Favorable government policies have also helped to drive developments in the disaster recovery solutions market in China. "The relevant national authorities have issued a number of directives and policies to safeguard information security, which has led to the establishment of disaster backup systems in the key industries,” adds Ting Yang.

The catastrophic events of the September 11 terrorist attacks, the tsunami in Southeast Asia, as well as the recent snow disaster in southern China and the Wenchuan Earthquake, have driven home the point that sudden threats to security and safety can happen anytime and enterprises have to be prepared at all times to ensure business continuity.

At present, disaster recovery solutions in China are mainly designed for specific industries such as the financial industry including banks, insurance companies and stock brokerages. Customers in this industry are the major contributors to the disaster recovery market revenue, taking up a market share of about 42.1%. With further enhancements and developments in risk control measures in the financial industry, coupled with growing compliance with industry standards such as the Information Security Technology -- Disaster Recovery Specifications for Information Systems, IDC expects the demand for disaster recovery solutions to increase rapidly, especially in industries such as telecommunications, governments, transportation, and energy.

IDC anticipates that the global economic situation will not impact China's business continuity and disaster recovery solutions market and the demand will remain relatively stable as these tools are critical for the normal operation of an enterprise's core businesses. IDC forecasts that the disaster recovery market will maintain a compound annual growth rate of 20.7% over 2008-2013.

Unlike traditional infrastructure solutions, a disaster recovery solution will have services as a larger component than the software itself. This is because a comprehensive disaster recovery solution needs to be very closely aligned to the business and its various management functions and processes. A standard disaster recovery solution for an enterprise should not only include a Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) and a Business Continuity Plan (BCP), but also a highly effective maintenance schedule of the disaster recovery center, regular disaster recovery testing, as well as associated regulations and management processes.

Business continuity and disaster recovery systems may be built and managed by an enterprise itself or it could follow an outsourcing model. Through outsourcing, early investment in capital and technology resources required in the construction of disaster recovery systems can be avoided, which may be a feasible option for the SMBs. Large enterprises, on the other hand, are generally more inclined to build their own disaster recovery systems, sometimes even in partnership with external service providers.

"Enterprises therefore have to first prioritize what they need from a disaster recovery system, before deciding whether a self-built or outsourced model would work best," Ting Yang advises.

Notes to Editor:
According to the definition by IDC, business continuity and disaster recovery solutions include the software products for data management, storage management, systems management, storage replication, etc. and the consultation, systems integration and management services related to disaster recovery.