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IT departments were not sufficiently prepared for North America
blackout "I think that this blackout demonstrated that most IT departments, especially those in mid-sized companies, are still flying by the seat of their pants," said Jason Livingstone, analyst at Info-Tech Research Group. "Disaster recovery planning is simply not on their list of priorities." 82 percent of companies are concerned that another blackout will hit their area within the next twelve months, and they are taking steps to ensure that they will be better prepared for the next time. "On a positive note, I think that this blackout was a wake-up call for a lot of companies," said Livingstone. "63 percent of those surveyed said that they were either going to create a new disaster recovery plan, or update an existing plan." Other than reviewing and updating their DR plans, the study also showed that companies are looking into other business continuity precautions. 20 percent said that they were planning to purchase a backup generator, and another 18 percent said that they were going to review their agreements with their service providers. One other piece of insight from the survey that will send shivers down the spines of business managers everywhere: while 76 percent of IT managers said that the blackout had an impact on their company, 67 percent of them said that it had no financial impact whatsoever. This suggests that IT and business still have not bridged the gap. 13 percent said that the blackout cost their organisation more than $5 million dollars.
•Date:
22nd August 2003 • Region: North America •Type:
Article •Topic: BC
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