Arcserve announced key findings from its annual independent global research. The study found that 43% of IT decision-makers (ITDMs) falsely believe that cloud providers are responsible for protecting and recovering data in the public cloud. This misconception of data protection responsibility can lead to increased vulnerability, especially amid a growing cloud investment trend for the cloud.

The Arcserve annual global survey uncovers a consistent misperception regarding the responsibility for data stored in public clouds. In 2019, 46% of ITDMs believed it was the cloud provider's responsibility. The misconception persisted in 2020, with 44% believing the same, and now stands at 43% in the latest research. The research highlights several additional factors that reveal a concerning lag in data protection, including:

• Nearly two-thirds of ITDMs surveyed believe cloud backups are safer than on-premises backups.
• One-third reported poorly documented disaster recovery plans.
• 41% reported that their organization's disaster recovery plans were not updated.

Said Florian Malecki, executive vice president of marketing at Arcserve: "Organizations need to understand that data protection and recovery responsibility lies with them, not with the cloud provider. The time to act is now, particularly amid growing hybrid and multi-cloud adoption as proven by our annual research with some 82% of ITDMs expecting to increase hybrid cloud investments and 70% expecting to increase multi-cloud investment."