'Unlocking Data Resilience' Survey: Gaining Market Clarity Through a Strategic Survey in Canada and USA

We gathered data from CTOs, CIOs and Data leaders from accounts like Chubb, Abode or Deloitte to support a leading global technology client in deepening their understanding of the North American enterprise landscape, our team executed a targeted survey initiative focused on data infrastructure, storage strategies, and IT priorities. The goal was to surface actionable intelligence on enterprise needs while opening the door for more informed engagement with strategic accounts.

Our Approach

The survey's objectives were centered on understanding are the data and storage needs in the market, the challenges and preferences in data solutions, and identifying signals of alignment from key decision-makers and our client to understand how their solution is positioned.

We developed a survey that reached highly relevant profiles - including senior leaders in data infrastructure, storage, and IT operations - across a prioritized list of enterprise accounts, including Manulife, Chubb, Canada Air, Adobe, and Deloitte.

The research aimed to deliver both qualitative and quantitative insights. Beyond gauging interest in specific technologies, the initiative explored broader themes like market readiness, architectural shifts, and perceived vendor strengths. The survey was intentionally designed to elicit thoughtful responses from stakeholders with real influence over IT strategy and purchasing.

Through a personalized and highly targeted outreach approach, we were able to engage relevant decision-makers and collect rich insight while simultaneously starting conversations on behalf of our client.

Who We Engaged

We targeted senior decision-makers across enterprise IT, including:

• Heads of Infrastructure & Storage

• CIOs and CTOs

• VPs and Directors of IT, Risk, and Compliance

• Leaders in Data Strategy, Cloud, and Enterprise Architecture

  
  

These individuals represented a mix of industries including healthcare, manufacturing, transportation, and technology — allowing us to benchmark cross-sector trends while focusing on high-value accounts for the client.

Key Insights

The responses revealed several consistent themes across enterprise data and storage environments:

• Top Priorities: Security and cyber resilience (67%), cost efficiency (66%), and compliance (55%) ranked as the most pressing concerns. Performance, scalability, and cloud integration also remained critical.
  

• Current Storage Usage: The vast majority of respondents (88%) are leveraging cloud storage, often in combination with hybrid models. File-based and local/on-prem storage also remain common, reflecting diverse infrastructure strategies.
  

• Managing Data Growth: Enterprises are increasingly exploring automated storage tiering (30%) and cloud offloading (24%) to handle growing data volumes. However, only a small segment have implemented comprehensive consolidation or archiving strategies.
  

• SAN-Specific Challenges: Respondents cited a mix of technical and operational pain points, including outdated architectures (33%), data migration difficulties (33%), and the need to support modern workloads like AI. Avoiding vendor lock-in and simplifying storage management were also top of mind.
  

  

Why It Mattered

This program helped the client build a much clearer picture of how their brand and solutions are perceived in a competitive environment - and where real opportunities exist to support enterprise needs.

It also served as a strategic bridge between marketing and sales, enabling teams to align outreach efforts with real-world customer priorities. From refining messaging to identifying warm leads, the insights informed go-to-market actions with precision.

Conclusion

This engagement is a strong example of how tailored survey programs can do more than capture sentiment - they can generate commercial momentum. By connecting research directly to business development goals, we helped our client uncover hidden opportunities, sharpen positioning, and move forward with confidence in key accounts.