Unisys European survey reveals disaster recovery planning inadequacies

54 percent of companies across Europe do not have a formal disaster recovery plan to cover all their existing IT infrastructure, and 18 percent do not have a formal disaster recovery plan in place at all, according to a pan-European survey commissioned by Unisys, the worldwide information technology services and solutions company.

The research 'lifts the drain cover' on the risks and costs facing CIOs when considering the impact that technology investment has on their business. Three challenges for the CIO were highlighted: finance, security and governance. The research also revealed that companies are dangerously exposed by not taking sufficient action to address these challenges.

When asked, 67 percent of CIOs admitted to finding it difficult to calculate the cost of losing data. In addition, 77 percent of CIOs said they cannot quantify the financial impact of taking servers out or adding servers into their existing IT infrastructure. This means, for example, that they would be unable to calculate the benefits of consolidation and thus miss out on an opportunity to reduce costs. Nearly 30 percent of CIOs admit they do not test their DR plan even for mission critical technology or are unaware if this plan is being tested.

"This begs the question as to what is 'mission critical'? With the increase in corporate governance, directors need to respond to EU regulations otherwise they will find themselves liable," says Steve Rawsthorn, vice president of marketing for Unisys, Systems & Technology EMEA. "The research suggests that too many CIOs are not checking what is going on under the 'drain cover' and are not examining their IT infrastructure closely enough."

Tony Lock, chief analyst, Bloor Research, comments, "Many organisations have not yet managed to comprehend the value that their IT infrastructures hold in business terms. Organisations are absolutely dependent on their IT systems to operate a number of critical business services. It is essential that these systems have business continuity plans appropriate to the needs of the business."

•Date: 29th October 2003 •Region: UK/W.Europe •Type: Article •Topic: BC stats
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