The 2011 Business Data Loss Survey has been released, uncovering the major IT challenges when it comes to protecting endpoint data and furthering our understanding of where data loss vulnerability and risk in enterprises lie.

In 2011, over 50% of the 250 companies surveyed have lost business data. An even more concerning result was that 10% of companies could not recover their data if lost, while 27% estimated it would take around 24 hours to recover lost data.

A recent report listed the average cost of a lost or stolen laptop at $50 000. The 2011 Business Data Loss Survey uncovered that 30% of respondents value the data on their laptop or desktop at over $25 000.

Combine the value of business data with the potential reputational risks of losing it and the corporate governance requirement of protecting organizational data and enterprises have a pressing incentive to ensure they employ an effective endpoint data protection solution.

These statistics reveal a definite void between the reality of data loss and organizations employing working solutions to the problem. 45% of those surveyed found their data backup solution only 'moderately effective' while 22% believe their current data protection is ineffective.

Another discovery was that 60% of companies now use laptops as their primary system-illustrating a definite move towards business data mobility and an increase in 'road warriors'. This mobilisation of corporate data increases data loss risks as well as intensifies possible cyber security threats and unauthorised access to corporate information. Increased user mobility also results in inflated bandwidth costs - over 67% of companies reported significantly higher bandwidth and storage costs in the 2011 Data Loss survey.

One of the key challenges acknowledged in storage planning for 2012 being that IT tends to look at user data protection in the traditional sense, meaning from the centre out, instead of from the edge, inward - with the main areas of risk and exposure residing on endpoint user devices such as laptops and desktops. It is clear that in 2011, data loss - and specifically laptop and desktop data loss - has become a definite pain-point for enterprise IT.