REDWOOD CITY, Calif., April 6, 2010 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today Informatica Corporation (Nasdaq:INFA), the world's number one independent provider of enterprise data integration software, announced the availability of a new independent research study entitled Information, Unplugged: 2009 OAUG ResearchLine Survey on Enterprise Application Information Lifecycle Management, which details the enormous challenges IT is facing because of the surge in data flowing through today's enterprise applications and databases.
The Oracle Applications Users Group (OAUG™) survey also revealed the need for "a more focused effort" toward applying information lifecycle management (ILM) techniques to databases and applications to proactively manage data growth. Taken together, techniques like database archiving, database subsetting and data masking can counter the progressively negative impact data proliferation has on application performance, information availability, IT costs and business risk.
Produced by Unisphere Research, which surveyed more than 225 members of the OAUG, the Informatica-sponsored study exposes the lack of an overarching strategy in many organizations to deal with the rising tide of information. The research shows that "most organizations are only just beginning to take the steps necessary to address these challenges," and an astounding 35 percent of respondents lack "a grasp on how to manage the growing data volumes within their enterprise applications."
"The results of this OAUG ResearchLine survey are a wake-up call for business enterprises of all sizes," said David Ferguson, president, OAUG. "Armed with the timely feedback, progressive organizations would be wise to seek a proactive and holistic ILM path for managing the growing terabytes of enterprise wide data. The survey's call to action underscores the value when applications and data are managed effectively from development, test and early production all the way through to archive and retirement."
Key Survey Findings
Most respondents try to combat performance issues with solutions of limited effectiveness such as tuning the application stack, which yields diminishing returns, and upgrading or expanding their hardware environments, which adds complexity and costs.
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87 percent "blame their performance issues on data growth"
- 27 percent are currently meeting all service level agreements
Maintenance costs are disproportional to the usefulness of the application. The majority of those surveyed have no formal method for legacy application retirement.
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42 percent require one to five full-time employees to maintain a "legacy application"
- One in seven requires even more headcount, and 14 percent devote a tenth of their annual IT budget to maintaining such applications
Another issue is the use of full copies of production data in internal, offshore and outsourced development and test environments, a practice that increases both enterprise data volumes and business risk. Additionally, the study concludes that "more enterprises need to better ensure that data is stripped of any identifiers that could expose sensitive data on customers and partners."
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75 percent make up to five copies of live production data for non-production purposes
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78 percent use real production data in non-production environments, and
- Only 31 percent use masking to hide confidential information
The data growth problem is compounded by mandates and policies that require data to be kept accessible for extended periods.
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60 percent keep data for seven or more years
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16 percent keep it "forever"
- 66 percent say that archived data should be readily available as needed
The study concludes that "database archiving will continue to be an internal enterprise challenge… requiring the proper tools and approaches to handle the growing volumes of data." This is due largely to the explosion in mergers and acquisitions in which enterprises have seen dramatic increases in the number of redundant and "unproductive legacy applications that they are maintaining for narrow, specialized purposes."
"Inadequately managed data growth is fast becoming a problem of epic proportions, with some enterprise applications and databases increasing in size by as much as 50 percent a year," said Adam Wilson, general manager, Information Lifecycle Management, Informatica. "To date, most enterprises have only focused on managing data growth for their e-mail and file systems. Enterprises now need to apply these same principles to the structured data stored in their databases, data warehouses and enterprise applications. Forward looking enterprises should consider implementing solutions, such as database archiving, application retirement, test data management, and data masking solutions that can help them gain significant competitive advantage by spending less time and money maintaining existing systems and more time supporting new, more strategic initiatives."
About the Oracle Applications Users Group (OAUG)
Founded in 1990, the Oracle Applications Users Group (OAUG) is the world's largest knowledgebase for Oracle Applications users. The organization serves as an advocate to Oracle Corp. for companies worldwide, including more than 35 percent of the companies on the Fortune 100 list. The OAUG provides users with education, networking and support via a wide range of activities and forums including conferences, publications, special interest groups and online communities. For more information about the OAUG, visit the Web site at oaug.org.
About Informatica
Informatica Corporation (Nasdaq:INFA) is the world's number one independent provider of data integration software. Organizations around the world gain a competitive advantage in today's global information economy with timely, relevant and trustworthy data for their top business imperatives. More than 3,900 enterprises worldwide rely on Informatica to access, integrate and trust their information assets held in the traditional enterprise, off premise and in the Cloud. For more information, call +1 650-385-5000 (1-800-653-3871 in the U.S.), or visit www.informatica.com.
Note: Informatica is a registered trademark of Informatica Corporation in the United States and in jurisdictions throughout the world. All other company and product names may be trade names or trademarks of their respective owners.