Enterprises up DR strategies

Symantec has released the findings of the fifth annual IT disaster recovery survey, which demonstrates rising disaster recovery (DR) pressures on enterprises, according to Business Standard.

The rise, according to the survey, is caused by soaring downtime costs and more stringent IT service level requirements to mitigate risks to the business.

The study also shows that DR budgets are higher in 2009 and they are expected to further rise over the next 24 months.

Most small and medium enterprises (SMEs) use in-house IT to store all their data and e-mails, and if anything happens to this equipment during a winter storm, it can be out of action for hours, if not days, states Channel Web.

The majority of these SMEs do not have the resources to cope with downtime, so are risking loss of profit, and they may think they are doing enough by having some form of back-up procedure, such as the bare minimum tape-based storage.

Tape backup relies on human intervention, as tapes need to be swapped regularly, taken off-site and stored properly. Companies are often uninterested in looking at business continuity until it is too late.

Employers should brace themselves for swine flu staff absence rates of up to 50% for periods of between two and four weeks over the coming months, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) has warned, reports PersonnelToday.com.

The recommendation comes as the latest swine flu figures show a continuing fall in the number of people infected by the bug, with only 4 500 new cases in England in the week commencing 24 August.

However, experts are still expecting a surge in cases as winter approaches, and the CIPD is urging UK businesses to consider a second wave of the outbreak in their contingency planning arrangements.