Five Years Worth of Data
10% may not seem like a lot, but in the world of online backup it’s a milestone. For the last five years, Backblaze has had the folks at Harris Interactive ask “How often do you backup all the data on your computer?” To our dismay, daily back up of the photos, videos, music, data, and more on people’s computers has languished at 6-8%. But our 2012 survey said 10% now do daily backups, a 47% increase over 2011—woo hoo! Even better, the survey also revealed that weekly backups increased 38% over 2011 and monthly backups increased 29% over 2011. In other words, people are backing up their data more often and that is GREAT news.
There’s Still Work to Do
But all is not rosy in backup land as 29% of computer users have never backed up all the data on their computer (cue scary music here). While 29% is a decrease of 15% over 2011, it is still too high. So we wanted to know why would someone not do daily backups? Amazingly, 59% thought that daily data backups were either too complicated or too expensive, or they just plain forget to do it. Hmmm, so is there a way to backup a computer that is easy to use, affordable, automatic, and continuous?
Our Challenge for 2013
Here’s our audacious goal for 2013. Let’s get the percentage of people who backup daily (10% in 2012) to be higher than the percentage of people who don’t backup at all (29% in 2012). Impossible, you say? Let’s try—“no try, do.” How can you help? Give the gift of Backblaze to someone you know from the 90% who don’t back up daily. Of course we’ll keep plugging away here and between us we can reach the 2013 goal. Thanks for your help.
“How ften do you back up all the data on your computer?”
Other Interesting Statistics from the 2012 Survey:
- 43% of computer owners backup less than once a year (or never)
- Only 3% backup more frequently than once per day (Backblaze recommends backing up continuously!)
How backup corresponds with education; percent of people who have ever backed up their data:
- 62% High-school or less
- 74% Some college
- 79% College or more
How backup corresponds with income; percent of people who have ever backed up their data:
- 71% Less than $35k
- 68% $35k-$49k
- 69% $50k-$74k
- 74% More than $75k
How backup corresponds to employment status; percent of people who have ever backed up their data:
- 75% Full-time employed or self-employed
- 70% Part-time employed
- 68% Unemployed
- 71% Student
- 65% Retired
Survey Methodology
The surveys were conducted online within the United States by Harris Interactive on behalf of Backblaze as follows: May 31-June 4, 2012 among 2,209 respondents; June 28-30, 2011 among 2,257 respondents; June 3-7, 2010 among 2,071 respondents; May 13-14, 2009 among 2,185 respondents; and May 27-29, 2008 among 2,761 respondents. In all surveys, respondents consisted of US adult computer users (aged 18+), weighted to the US adult population of computer users. No estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated.
