WHAT’S HOT wor ld news


remained flat year over year compared with 2010 and declined single-digit seasonally. However, IDC believes this is not a sign of weakness in the underlying demand, nor is it connected to the eurozone sovereign debt crisis. Instead, it is a product of a high base in both the second quarter last year and the first quarter this year. Sales of high-end systems, for example, grew in virtually every country if we exclude a single, but significant, NetApp deal last year.


Among the major markets, France, the Nordics, and Switzerland did especially well. The increase can largely be explained by currency impacts, but France performed very strongly across all price bands, while the


Subscribe to our weekly email newsletter at: www.snseurope.info


Nordics and Switzerland had real strength in high-end and lower midrange systems. The PIGS markets (Portugal, Ireland, Greece, and Spain) continued to suffer under the burden of the sovereign debt crisis as these


economies depend greatly on the public sector and a few larger enterprises, which cut back not only their IT capital layouts but also their spending on other goods and services, thereby crippling local suppliers.


Table 2 2011 Performance of Major Markets in Western Europe Country


United Kingdom Germany France Italy


Rest of WE


YoY 3%


-1% 32% 1%


6.2%


QoQ -8% -8% 3%


-3% -5%


Source: IDC EMEA Quarterly Disk Storage Systems Tracker


CCC* YoY -5%


-12% 17% -11% -9%


CCC* QoQ -9%


-12% -2% -8%


-11% *constant currency calculation


Emails are no longer the most commonly specified documents in eDiscovery requests


Symantec has announced the findings of its 2011 Information Retention and eDiscovery Survey (hyperlink to come) which examined how enterprises manage their ever-growing volumes of electronically stored information and prepare for the eventuality of an eDiscovery request. The survey of legal and IT personnel at 2,000 enterprises worldwide found email is not the primary source of records companies must produce and more importantly, respondents who employ best practices for records and information management are significantly less at risk of court sanctions or fines.


“The fact that email is no longer the primary source of information for an eDiscovery request is a significant change from what has been the norm over the past several years,” said Annie Goranson, eDiscovery Attorney at Symantec. “The days of legal simply asking IT to dump emails onto backup tapes are over, there is too much information being created by a wide variety of sources. It’s critical for those two departments to work together to develop and implement an effective information retention policy.”


Email Does Not Equal eDiscovery


When asked what types of documents are most commonly part of an eDiscovery request, respondents selected files and documents (67 percent), and database or application data (61 percent) ahead of email (58 percent). As evidence of just how many sources companies must be prepared to produce information from, more than half indicated SharePoint files (51 percent), and nearly half cited instant messages and text messages (44 percent) and social media (41 percent).


Better Practices Drive Dramatically Better Outcomes The survey found wide variations in information retention practices among enterprises. Companies that employ best practices, such as automating the placement of legal holds and leveraging an archiving tool instead of relying on backups, fare dramatically better when it comes to responding to an eDiscovery request. These top-tier companies are 81 percent more likely to have a formal retention plan in place; 63 percent more likely to automate legal holds; and 50 percent more likely to use a formal archiving tool. Implementing these best practices translates to a 64 percent faster


8 www.snseurope.info I October/November 2011


response time with a 2.3 times higher success rate when responding to an eDiscovery request. Consequently, these top-tier companies are significantly less likely to suffer negative consequences than companies that do not have a formal information retention policy in place. Top-tier companies are:


•78 percent less likely to be sanctioned by the courts •47 percent less likely to lead to compromised legal position •20 percent less likely to have fines levied


•45 percent less likely to disclose too much information leading to compromised litigation position


Despite Risks, Organizations Still Not Prepared Despite the risks, the survey found nearly half of respondents do not have an information retention plan in place. Thirty percent are only discussing how to do so, and 14 percent have no plan to do so. When asked why, respondents indicated lack of need (41 percent); too costly (38 percent); nobody has been chartered with that responsibility (27 percent); don’t have time (26 percent); and lack of expertise (21 percent) are top reasons.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44