UK firms lack data recovery strategy

Power outages are one of the main causes of IT failure

IT failures have forced a third of UK businesses to down tools in the past six months, according to a survey by data resilience specialist Adam Continuity.

The firm questioned 1,200 employees at selected UK companies, and results revealed 64 per cent of employees have no idea what to do in the event of an IT failure, because they have not been informed of their company’s data continuity plans.

Philip Caulfield, managing director of Adam Continuity, said: “Data failure is one of the most common disruptions to business continuity. If not managed properly, these incidents can escalate quickly to cause excessive downtime that wastes hundreds of thousands, if not millions of pounds.

“To ensure they are dealt with quickly and the impact is minimised, companies should be developing robust business and data continuity plans and communicating them to all staff. These should include clear strategies for retrieving compromised data in suitable recovery times.”

Adam Continuity claimed the three most common causes of data failure are power outages, hardware problems and broken air conditioning systems, and warned firms to ensure they have a data retrieval plan in place as well as data backup.

“Too many business leaders focus on data backup only, without considering how they would retrieve that data in the event of an invocation. It is a common mistake that if your data is safely stored, your business is safe,” Caulfield cautioned.

“If a contingency plan does not incorporate a strategy for returning that data to the staff who need it, in a format they can use and within an acceptable time frame, the fact that it is stored safely is meaningless,” he said.