Western Digital announced today (March 3) a global research survey commissioned by Researchscape for World Backup Day. The report shows that 27% of respondents worldwide said they automatically or manually back up their data. Among Taiwanese respondents, 87% will proactively back up their data. The main reasons for backing up personal data are fear of losing important files (81%), freeing up device space (75%), and preventing network threats (51%). 37% of respondents also said that they backed up their data because they were told by others how important it is to back up data. However,
Still, 10% of Taiwanese respondents said they never back up their personal data, which is higher than the global average (4%).
"I'm pleased to see growing awareness of the importance of data protection," said Stefan Mandl, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Asia Pacific and Japan at Western Digital. "World Backup Day serves as an annual reminder of the importance of data backup and raises global awareness of the risks of data loss. It's also an opportunity to emphasize the importance of data protection. All it takes is a small incident to permanently lose data. In fact, 66% of Taiwanese respondents in the survey have experienced data loss due to device failure, accidental deletion, or cyberattack."
Of the Taiwanese respondents who haven't backed up their personal data, 56% cited the time-consuming process as the reason for not backing up their data, 28% cited insufficient storage space, and 24% still believe they don't need to back up their personal data. Furthermore, over half (56%) of Taiwanese respondents stated that they would back up their data more frequently if the backup process were more automated and streamlined.
A reliable backup method should follow the 3-2-1 backup principle, which means consumers should keep three copies of their data, stored on two different media, and store one copy in a remote location such as the cloud.
With free cloud storage rapidly being used up, many consumers are adopting hybrid storage strategies to protect their data. A survey shows that 76% of Taiwanese respondents still rely on free cloud storage, 45% said they have used up their storage space within the past six months, 44% have upgraded to paid plans, and another 45% believe cloud storage costs are increasing.
As a result, more and more people are combining cloud storage with on-premises external storage to ensure data protection and cost-effectiveness. External HDD storage devices, offering capacities up to 26TB per drive, are a cost-effective solution for cloud storage. Many consumers are already adopting this method for backup, with 42% of Taiwanese respondents using external HDDs and 17% using NAS. By leveraging diverse storage options, users can ensure reliable backups while effectively managing the increasing costs of cloud storage.
Western Digital provides consumers and businesses with easy-to-use data storage solutions that simplify backup and meet today's growing storage needs. Western Digital also recently introduced higher capacity products, including the 26TB WD Red Pro CMR HDD for NAS environments, as well as 26TB G-DRIVE and G-RAID external storage solutions designed for consumers, creative professionals, and content creators (product availability may vary).
Consumers can also easily back up their digital lives with the WD My Passport 20th Anniversary Edition, a 2.5-inch portable HDD with an industry-leading 6TB capacity. The WD My Passport device also includes built-in Acronis True Image for Western Digital software, allowing for easy scheduled backups of precious data.
The survey results are from an online survey conducted by Researchscape from February 2025 to 2, 7, covering 25 respondents from 10 different countries, including 6118 respondents from Taiwan.
