Businesses flirt with disaster

360,000 UK firms have no disaster recovery plans in place, warns research

Up to 360,000 firms in the UK have no disaster recovery provisions in place, creating a gaping hole that enterprising channel partners can help to fill, according to recent research.

The TDM Group, which commissioned the research, claimed that although 79 per cent of firms have some disaster recovery in place, 21 per cent still have no plans.

Dennis Wijsmuller, managing director of the TDM Group, said: "Not having disaster recovery is a bit like driving a car without a seat belt."

The best protected companies are those in the financial sector. The research found 92 per cent of IT managers in financial firms claimed business could get up and running again within minutes in the event of a disaster.

However, Mark Crocker, marketing manager at Zycko, which has also conducted research into data back-up, said financial institutions were among the companies which need to look at backing up their data properly.

Zycko's research found 91 per cent of firms do not back up on a weekly basis.

Crocker said the research looked at how important data is to a company. "The way firms look at data back-up doesn't reflect how important they consider it.

"They are backing-up but when they do it, it's still likely that some will be lost," he said.

Jason Rabbetts, commercial director at storage VAR Source Consulting, said his firm comes across many end-users who do not have disaster recovery plans in place.

"There is a huge opportunity for resellers in this space. Lots of firms, especially SMEs, have no back-up or disaster recovery at all.

"Even major FTSE 100 firms have plans that are not watertight, and only about 85 per cent are secure," he said.

Rabbetts added that back-up and disaster recovery technology is changing, as real-time online back-up becomes increasingly popular.

"Back-up and disaster recovery plans are among the top priorities for end-users, and are commanding a lot of IT budget," he said.