Shoden Data Systems has published the results of an independent survey of 100 UK IT decision makers. The findings revealed that in some markets (retail, distribution and transport), up to 72% of organisations have already or are planning to implement disk-based as opposed to tape-based backup in 2009. According to the study, carried out by Vanson Bourne earlier this year, among the biggest proponents of disk-based backup is also the financial services industry, with 64% of respondents opting for disk over tape.

The survey also found that the smaller the business, the stronger the response: 64% of respondents from organisations with between 1,000 to 3,000 employees said that they have already or are planning to deploy tapeless backup this year, whereas the figure dropped to 56% for companies with more than 3,000 staff. This response is likely to be given by the existing tape-based infrastructure that tends to be found in larger data centres, which are therefore slower to convert to a disk-based strategy.