This IDC study presents more in-depth analysis of the results of a survey on continuous data protection (CDP) completed in April 2006. After explosive growth in the number of offerings in 2005 as well as the numerous acquisitions in 2006, the CDP segment is currently entering a quiet phase. The future of most acquired CDP products and technologies has yet to be defined.

"End users need to be cautious when considering a CDP purchase, whether from an independent CDP provider or from a larger storage vendor," says Rhoda Phillips, research manager, IDC Storage Software. "Some of the larger vendors have yet to deliver a clear road map of integration of CDP functionality into their data protection product portfolios, further contributing to a hesitation in buying decisions."

"The survey results indicate that end users expect to see CDP functionality integrated into data protection offerings," adds Natalya Yezhkova, research manager, IDC Storage Systems. "At the same time, we expect that applicability of CDP technology will expand to areas other than data protection, such as disaster recovery, product testing, and business analytics."