Increased reliance on IT driving business continuity purchases This contrasts with the results of a similar survey, undertaken in 2003 by SunGard, where the threat of terrorism was seen as the main driver (34 percent of respondents said that this was the top factor driving business continuity investment). Two years ago, an increased reliance on IT was the main driver for only a quarter of organisations surveyed. The 2005 survey found that new regulations were the second highest factor encouraging increased investment in business continuity, with 33 percent of respondents saying that this was their top reason for making business continuity purchases. Keith Tilley, UK managing director and senior vice-president Europe at SunGard Availability Services, said: “9/11 caused people to focus on just one of the drivers of business continuity spending, and two years ago this event was still at the forefront of people’s minds. This year’s survey reflects a trend towards a more pragmatic view and the reality that terrorism accounts for a small number of our customers’ problems. It’s encouraging to see that this year’s survey reflects a trend towards a more pragmatic view. The more mundane incidents - power outages, software or hardware failure - can have just as devastating effects.” The survey also indicates a trend away from simple disaster recovery plans to more complex business continuity and information availability strategies. 56 percent of those companies surveyed felt that they used a combination of reactive and proactive measures, which SunGard would categorise as disaster recovery and business continuity solutions respectively. However, a growing number of organisations (25 percent) are also investing in ‘interactive’ services. Typically, these involve high availability / managed IT solutions, aimed at ensuring that mission critical applications are never unavailable to staff. 50 percent of respondents predicted that spending would increase in the high availability space over the next five years.
•Date: 16th June 2005 • Region:UK • Type:
Article •Topic:
BC statistics |
