Majority of businesses lack data recovery planning 
(04/03/2008)
Three-quarters of UK companies have no contingency plans for data loss, even though 90 per cent have had to recover data in the past year, according to research from Kroll Ontrack. 65 per cent of UK businesses have no dedicated budget available for data recovery – suggesting that many companies may be left financially unprepared in the event that data recovery services are required.
Tape remains the preferred method of backing up legacy data (69 per cent of respondents), however backup media and processes are left untested and unchecked by 62 per cent of IT professionals. Furthermore, almost a third of those questioned also find it extremely difficult to extract archived emails from offline servers - severely hindering email discovery and compliance requests.
Kroll Ontrack’s experts are warning that lack of planning means many businesses are sitting on a potentially paralysing data time bomb, which could go off at any moment with dramatic financial implications. A lack of data recovery planning can mean that costs soar and staff panic needlessly.
During 2007, this was clearly demonstrated by the summer floods. The damage caused amounted to an estimated £3bn. Many businesses lost data kept on hard drives – emphasising the need to have a comprehensive data management and recovery plan in place.
All plans need to involve an element of education – if employees know how to act in the event of data loss then the chance of damaging the media further drops dramatically. Establishing a relationship with a trusted data recovery expert is key as this reduces downtime and enables an organisation to get back on its feet as soon as possible.
“Our statistics reveal that many companies still have the mentality of ‘it’ll never happen to us’, which is a high risk strategy,” said Phil Bridge, Managing Director, Ontrack Data Recovery UK. “Regardless of size of IT budgets, organisations simply cannot wait for a data time bomb to explode underneath them. Employee education, careful planning and rigorous backup testing will be the only way IT professionals will be able to avert disaster and diffuse it themselves.”
Related topics: Data management and data security Security management and policies
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