One in three US companies operate without a formal IT disaster recovery strategy

Nearly one in three companies (30 percent) are operating without a formal IT disaster recovery strategy in place and 64 percent of companies admit that their data backup and disaster recovery plans have significant vulnerabilities. These are some of the findings of a recent US national survey, sponsored by Imation Corp.

The survey polled 202 IT directors and network storage managers on their perception of data backup, storage technologies and disaster recovery practices.

According to the survey:
* Eighty-seven percent of companies do have a formal data backup and storage plan implemented. However, 32 percent of those companies reported not testing their plans on a regular basis.
* In addition, 64 percent of the companies surveyed said they do not conduct external audits of their data storage and backup systems on a regular basis.
* Events of the last few years have significantly increased the emphasis companies are now placing on data backup and disaster recovery. The survey discovered that 36 percent of the companies changed their disaster recovery practices and backup habits as a result of the events of 9/11. Some of the implemented changes include:
- 56 percent implemented regular testing procedures for the first time.
- 43 percent moved data off-site.
- 42 percent established regular update procedures.
- 39 percent increased budgets for backup.
- 26 percent implemented a formal disaster recovery plan for the first time.

"These findings correlate with what ESG is seeing in the market. Companies are paying increased attention to backup-and more importantly- restore issues by implementing more vigorous disaster recovery and business continuity plans. Yet, many remain at risk due to unsafe and unreliable practices and procedures," said Steve Kenniston, technology analyst, Enterprise Storage Group. "A company can go out and buy the best storage equipment on the market; however, if they don't implement proper backup and DR practices, or establish regular testing and update procedures, they are leaving themselves vulnerable to significant data loss."

When it comes to protecting a company's data, it should be noted that a data backup plan is not the same as an IT disaster recovery plan. Often, the disaster recovery plan is integrated into the data backup plan; however, a disaster recovery plan specifically addresses how to restore data after a catastrophic event such as a fire, hurricane or tornado has occurred. Here are a few examples of how the two plans differ:

Data backup plan
1. Encompasses issues such as the frequency of backups, what to backup and how long to keep backed-up data.
2. Includes an onsite and offsite storage strategy.

IT disaster recovery plan
1. Involves the continuity of the business and the steps involved to fully restore its operational capabilities.
2. Takes into consideration the length of time a company’s IT systems can afford to be down, and designs a recovery plan to match that determination. The most robust plan would allow for near instantaneous recall, which would encompass setting up a secondary data centre complete with servers, networking capabilities and tape and disk storage.

A detailed report on the survey's findings, including the questions and top line results, can be found at www.imation.com/dataprotectionsurvey

•Date: 21st August 2003 • Region: N.America •Type: Article •Topic: BC stats
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