Three-quarters of companies leave disaster recovery planning solely to the IT department

According to a survey of IT managers conducted by Dynamic Markets Ltd., and sponsored by VERITAS, in 76 percent of companies, the decision-making process for disaster recovery is limited to IT staff, despite the potential impact to the entire business. In responding companies from the US, only 5 percent of CEOs and 4 percent of non-IT managers have decision-making responsibilities when it comes to defining disaster recovery strategy.

According to the research, man-made disasters such as 9/11 are a greater concern than natural disasters. While only six percent of respondents felt exposed to hurricanes and tornadoes, more than four times this amount worried about terrorism (25 percent). Technological failure ranks highest in the list of perceived threats, with the top five most common threats that large companies feel exposed to ranking as follows:
• Hardware failure (61 percent),
• Software failure and viruses (both 59 percent),
• Fire (56 percent),
• Hackers (36 percent), and
• Accidental employee error (31 percent).

Of those surveyed, 47 percent say the main criterion they use to calculate the amount spent on disaster recovery is the financial risk associated with each potential disaster. The potential threat of terrorism is the most expensive threat that companies have calculated, at $115 million. Respondents believe the five most likely consequences of a disaster if no plan was in place would be: data loss (64 percent), decreased employee productivity (57 percent), damage to customer relationships (50 percent), reduction in profits (49 percent), and reduction in revenue (37 percent).

Key risks of current disaster recovery strategies:

Accessibility
Of the IT managers surveyed, 62 percent only keep their disaster recovery plan in the company's main data centre. Only 20 percent keep the disaster recovery plan at a company building away from the main data centre, and only 15 percent keep the plan located off-site at a third party's secure location. Five percent of IT managers with responsibility for their disaster recovery plan were not sure where their plan is located.

Coverage
Almost a quarter of disaster recovery plans (23 percent) do not cover the entire data centre, and only 15 percent cover all of a company's remote offices. Only 20 percent of disaster recovery plans cover the desktop environment, and 14 percent cover the laptop environment.

Testing
The research found that 24 percent of companies neglect to test their disaster plan, especially in the United States, where 34 percent do not test. Among those who do not test their plans, the top barrier to testing was reported as lack of time (48 percent).

www.veritas.com

•Date: 4th September 2003 • Region: N.America/World •Type: Article •Topic: BC stats
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