Three-quarters of European businesses might not recover from disaster

* Seventy-four percent of organisations are not very confident that they can fully recover after a disaster, according to a new survey of 1 750 European companies.
* Fifty-four percent surveyed have lost data and/or suffered systems downtime in the last year.
* Sixty-one percent report hardware failure as the primary cause of data loss and downtime; natural disasters and employee sabotage being much less likely culprits.
* Forty-three percent of organisations cite loss of employee productivity as the single biggest economic impact.
* Twenty-eight percent point to lost revenue as a result of a disaster.
* Forty percent of organisations still use tape for recovery, and 80% of these organisations want to replace tape all together, highlighting the need for next-generation back-up and recovery.

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EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC) has announced results of the EMC-sponsored European Disaster Recovery Survey 2011, which found that 74% of European companies are not very confident that they can fully recover systems or data, and that more than half of all organisations (54%) lost data or suffered systems downtime in the last 12 months.

These findings highlight that companies need to focus on back-up and disaster recovery to ensure continued business operations in the event of a natural disaster or the more routine and common IT failure.

Commissioned by EMC and researched by independent research company Vanson Bourne, the report looks at the state of back-up and disaster recovery in Europe to understand how well companies are poised in case of data loss and systems downtime. European Disaster Recovery Survey 2011: Data Today Gone Tomorrow: How Well Companies Are Poised For IT Recovery.

Survey findings:

Failure happens: disruption more likely from an IT problem than a natural disaster.

The research showed that it is not the extraordinary that creates problems. The three most common causes of data loss and downtime are:

1. Hardware failure: 61%
2. Power failure: 42%
3. Software failure: 35%

This is in comparison to only 7% of systems downtime or data loss cited from a natural disaster, and only 8% attributed to employee sabotage. Regardless of the cause, 44% of organisations reviewed and changed their procedures for back-up and recovery in response to an incident. Furthermore, 27% of businesses increased their spending on back-up and recovery after a disaster.

“The results of the survey show that there is a need to rethink back-up and recovery strategies in Europe,” says Kelly Ferguson, Director of EMEA Marketing, EMC Backup Recovery Systems Division. “We live in an economic time when investments need to be made wisely, and there can be no tolerance for interruptions to the business because of an IT systems failure. With a properly thought out next-generation back-up approach, companies can improve both recovery from day-to-day outages as well as recoveries from something more severe.”

The study identified that there are measureable business impacts from systems downtime, with the top three cited as:

1. Loss of employee productivity: 43%
2. Loss of revenue: 28%
3. Delay in product development: 27%

Systems failure resulted on average in two lost working days for the businesses in the survey. This is the equivalent of 28 391 man-hours for a company employing approximately 2 000 employees.

“Back-up and recovery is a fundamental part of business and an essential element of information management,” says Neil Fisher, Vice-Chairman, the Information Assurance Advisory Council (IAAC), the independent, not-for-profit body, which promotes good information management and assurance practices.

“The EMC-sponsored survey highlights the high level of incidents where businesses have overlooked the importance of planning for events, even ordinary ones. It really doesn't matter if the events are routine acts of God or the result of criminal activity. Companies who plan for events and who invest in secure and speedy recovery will be the market winners.”

Across Europe, 49% of companies are obligated by either insurance policies or regulatory requirements to have a disaster recovery plan. However, with the right back-up and disaster recovery approach, companies can achieve cost-savings from insurers. Just over a quarter of the organisations surveyed were offered reduced premiums by their insurance provider, depending on their IT systems' back-up/disaster recovery strategy.

The research found that businesses are spending on average 10% of their IT budgets on back-up and recovery, and 29% of businesses do not feel they are spending enough. For back-up and disaster recovery purposes, 40% of companies still rely on tape, with an average annual cost of EUR74 000 on transporting, storing, testing and replacing tapes. Where tape is used for disaster recovery purposes, 10% still have an employee take home a copy of the back-up tapes with them.

Overall, 80% of organisations using tape are looking to move beyond it, with the top reasons cited as:

1. Speed of restoration: 39%
2. Faster back-ups: 33%
3. Lack of durability; 26%

Preparedness for routine disruption or more significant incidence starts with a next-generation back-up approach. The survey shows a reaction after a disaster to spend more on back-up and recovery, but the damage is done in terms of time and money during a downtime. Raising visibility for the most common problems facing companies today and the associated economic consequences, organisations can proactively review their own strategies for back-up and recovery to ensure they can meet business requirements.

For the European Disaster Recovery Survey 2011: Data Today Gone Tomorrow: How Well Companies Are Poised For IT Recovery study, Vanson Bourne interviewed 1 750 IT decision-makers in private and public sector organisations across the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Benelux and Russia. Each organisation ranged between 250 and 3 000-plus employees and represented a variety of industries, including manufacturing, retail, financial services and telecoms, among others.

Additional resources:

* EMC European Disaster Recovery Survey 2011
* Generating Proven Business Value with EMC Next Generation Backup and Recovery
* EMC back-up and recovery solutions page