{"id":108882,"date":"2023-06-01T09:32:31","date_gmt":"2023-06-01T16:32:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/?p=108882"},"modified":"2023-07-18T09:45:23","modified_gmt":"2023-07-18T16:45:23","slug":"2023-state-of-the-backup-as-data-needs-grow-backups-need-to-fill-the-gaps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/2023-state-of-the-backup-as-data-needs-grow-backups-need-to-fill-the-gaps\/","title":{"rendered":"2023 State of the Backup: As Data Needs Grow, Backups Need to Fill the Gaps"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Each passing year brings with it a June, and with that comes a Backup Awareness Month. For those that are new to the blog, each June we partner with The Harris Poll to gauge the state of backups in the United States, by asking the simple question: \u201cHow often do you back up all the data on your computer?\u201d (And a handful of other questions, too.) This post marks our survey’s 15th anniversary, and as you can imagine, the backup world has changed a lot in that time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019ve followed our previous State of the Backup articles, you\u2019ll know that we usually have a burning question that we want to answer. In 2021<\/a> and 2022<\/a>, we were interested in the \u201cbest backer upper.\u201d This year\u2019s focus touches on the different \u201ccloud\u201d services that respondents use, and their confidence level that those services are providing them with the protection they crave\u2014nay, deserve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that\u2019s not just our (totally) normal love of backup coming out. It comes as news to no one that the world has shifted to a more digital environment, the ways we store, use, and manage data have changed. We have our data at more touchpoints in our lives, and cloud-based sync services are readily available. Being able to capture a full backup for all those various uses\u2014business and personal\u2014means that the need for automatic, unlimited solutions that you can access from anywhere is no longer a \u201cnice to have.\u201d It\u2019s essential.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Backup Frequency Trends for 2023<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This is one of my favorite graphs. Now with 15 years of data, we look at our headline question: How often do you back up all the data on your computer? This year we\u2019re pleased that daily backups have not decreased and remain at similar levels to last year. In 2023, 11% of Americans who own a computer backed up their data at least once a day compared to 10% in 2022 and 11% in 2021. Weekly (8% in 2023 and 7% for both previous years) and monthly (15% in 2023 and 13% and 14% in the two previous years) backups among those who own a computer are similar to the past years as well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The number of people who have never backed up data also remains at similar levels, with 18% of Americans who own a computer saying they\u2019ve never backed up data in 2023 compared to 20% saying the same in the prior two years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019ve hung around the Backblaze blog before, you likely have heard me (Yev) saying that the main competitor we have to our computer backup service is apathy. While we\u2019re not (yet) seeing a statistically significant drop in those \u201cnever\u201d numbers, we love to see that this category isn\u2019t growing. And, we\u2019ve got big plans to get more folks backing up in the future\u2014we love using polls like this to learn more about how to move the needle. You can see from the graph below that, if you compare to 2008, we\u2019ve certainly seen change over time.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Since some people prefer the raw data, and you can find it here, lovingly copied from Google Sheets:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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While we\u2019re past March 14, Pi Day is one of my favorite holidays to celebrate and also one of my favorite chart types. Here we have pie charts comparing the 2008 to 2023 data:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We love seeing the daily section growing while the never section shrinks\u2014that\u2019s progress. And, like we stated above, we view it as a big indicator of the massive shift in the ways people are using data. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, we would love to see the daily backups skyrocketing year over year, because at the end of the day, if people aren\u2019t backing up frequently, they are at risk of losing at least<\/em> that day\u2019s worth of data, which is one of the things that Backblaze Computer Backup is trying to help people avoid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Title of \u201cBest\u201d at Backing Up Is Up For Grabs<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A few years ago we got curious about who is \u201cbest\u201d at backing up. In 2021, we saw some statistical significance that indicated women between 35-44 years of age (21% likely to backup versus 9% of those 18-34 and 6% of those 55-64), and those who live in the Western United States (17% more likely to back up vs. the South and Midwest at 9% and 7%, respectively) were more likely to be computer owners who backed up once a day or more. When we checked in 2022, we found no statistical difference between the categories\u2014but, we\u2019ll explain why we keep checking in on this profile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s worth taking a time-out for a stats mini-lesson, because we Backblaze plebeians did see some interesting fluctuations in the data, and the awesome experts at The Harris Poll let us know that these fluctuations are to be expected. Here\u2019s why: When you\u2019re talking about surveys rather than a census of a group, there is a sampling error that is expected just because you get a different group of people responding over time. We do statistical testing to see if the fluctuation could be due to chance (we just randomly got a different group of people) or if something has really changed in the group over time. In our survey, performed with 95% confidence, that means if we collected the survey 100 times we would report differences that would only occur in five of those surveys by chance assuming no change in the group. (Here\u2019s an article<\/a> that explains in more detail, if you\u2019d like to dig in.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The TL:DR of all that is that for a category to show statistical significance, it needs to be 5% greater or less than the total average of the parent category. In our parent category of computer owners who back up once a day or more,\u201d we have a total average of 11% for 2023. Women between the ages of 35\u201344\u2014clock in at 15%. So, while that\u2019s not statistically significant, it\u2019s certainly worth monitoring in our future surveys. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that means that this year, the title is up for grabs! Get geared up for next year, folks: We love healthy competition about better backups.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cloud Services Are All Around<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When we started Backblaze 16 years ago, Amazon AWS had only recently started marketing Amazon Elastic Cloud Compute (in 2006, folks). Now, \u201cthe cloud\u201d is a household name although it\u2019s something of an amorphous concept for many\u2014but there\u2019s no denying that the cloud is accessible to consumers and companies alike. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are some indicative stats: <\/p>\n\n\n\n