90% of Organizations Think Their Data Vulnerable in Event of Disaster

According to the survey, 90% of IT decision makers think their data is vulnerable in the event of a disaster. While only a 3% increase in perceived risk from the 2010 survey findings, this is particularly notable considering all of the focus on improving DR over the last few years. 27% experienced some form of data security incident in the last year, only 15% of which were due to natural disasters.

 The survey also found:

• The number of respondents describing their organization's data as "extremely vulnerable" edged up from 8% in the 2010 survey to 11%, and the number who felt minimally vulnerable or not vulnerable shrank from 51% to 31%.
• The most common data security incident was virus attacks, up 7% points from 2010, showing the need to have a robust backup process in place as viruses can permeate multiple data copies.
• Operating system failure (48%) was the next most common security issue, which saw a 21% point increase from the previous survey.
• While 68% of respondents back up data daily or more for DR purposes, 16% back up weekly or less, showing there is still room for adoption of best practices.
• Companies that aren't able to restore their archive or DR data face significant delays in business activities, lost revenue, and a negative impact on resources. Half of all respondents noted that a data restore problem could put service level agreements with customers at risk. All of these consequences directly affect a company's financials.

The heightened awareness of the vulnerability of data assets and the consequences of a disaster have made DR an IT budget priority. According to a survey by industry analyst firm Enterprise Strategy Group, one quarter of IT professionals listed business continuity/DR programs among their organization's most important IT priorities for 2012 spending.

Natural disasters such as this summer's wildfires have dominated recent discussion around disaster recovery planning for IT, but there are other threats to data security that are even more pressing for IT managers.  We're seeing a strong, sustained interest in the value of deduplicated and replicated disk backup and path-to-tape solutions for a best-practices approach to DR. In addition, many customers are now seeking all-in-one solutions that protect both physical and virtual environments. Increasingly, companies are also turning to cloud software and services for a solution to DR challenges.