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Business continuity in Toronto

As one of Canada's primary commercial centres, Toronto requires increasingly complex network infrastructure for its major industries, which include finance, telecommunications, education, and medical research. To ensure that these services continue uninterrupted, IT executives in the city must be prepared for diverse threats like extreme weather, 'virtual' events like security breaches and power outages – the effects of which still resonate with local businesses that lost power in the Northeast Blackout of 2003.

A recent AT&T study indicates that a vast majority (85 percent) of Toronto-area companies have developed business continuity plans to help identify, prevent and respond to adverse conditions, a third of whom are saying it has become a priority in recent years due to natural disasters and security issues. The survey shows that this level of preparedness has extended beyond theoretical threats, with 44 percent of companies having to invoke their business continuity plans in the past year.

Despite a volatile economy, businesses continue to invest in new technologies. Six out of ten (59 percent) Toronto executives surveyed indicate that in 2012 their companies will make strategic investments in areas like mobile applications (37 percent), cloud computing (35 percent) and security solutions (27 percent). Cloud computing has become a particular focus – a majority (57 percent) of executives are either currently using cloud or considering using it as part of their business continuity strategy. When it comes to disaster recovery, executives would most frequently use cloud computing for data storage (40 percent) and Web servers (37 percent).

Study methodology
The results are based on an online survey of 100 IT executives in Toronto, Canada. The study was conducted by Research Now with companies having total revenues of more than $25 million (except for government entities). Surveys were obtained between March 15 and 23, 2012.

http://www.att.com/businesscontinuity-news

•Date: 3rd May 2012 • Canada •Type: Article • Topic: BC statistics

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