Aberdeen Releases New Research Into the Disaster Recovery Practices of Leading IT Organizations
Automation has advanced to the extent that the loss of a single server or network device can bring an enterprise to a full stop. Even the loss of internal, traditionally less important systems such as email, web access, and desktop applications can result in the loss of employee productivity and lead to lower employee job satisfaction.
- Best-in-Class companies recorded on average fewer than one business interruption over the last twelve months
- Best-in-Class companies required less than 1 hour to recover 90% of operational functionality after a business disruption, as opposed to the 5 hours required by Laggard organizations
- 95% of their organization’s data availability SLA’s were met over the last twelve months by Best-in-Class companies
The report Disaster Avoidance and Disaster Recovery: Making your Datacenter Disaster Resilient, by Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company, features research based on a survey of the DR strategy of over 100 companies. It shows that disaster planning needs to be a formal process with backup procedures defined and formal training for all involved.
Aberdeen found that formal planning, keeping the plan current, and reporting against that plan were the most important factors in preventing business disruption; more important than the size of the company, the length of time they have had a DR program in place, or the number of IT resources employed.
Aberdeen’s research found:
- Formal documentation of the disaster recovery plan is a key component of 88% of industry-leading DR programs. A well-designed plan covers all aspects of a company’s operations, not just the computer infrastructure. This plan defines the roles and responsibilities of employees for dealing with all potential events.
- Only 22% of companies calculate their hourly cost of downtime. This metric is important to scope the right level of investment and response to business interruptions.
“Disaster recovery strategies and results continue to be an important topic for IT groups,” says Dick Csaplar, Senior Research Analyst and author of the study. “Only 7% of enterprises rate their datacenter’s uptime as being either 100% or 99.999% (less than 1 hour of downtime a year). That means that the vast majority of enterprises worldwide continue to have costly business interruptions due to a negative IT event.”
The report Aberdeen Releases New Research Into the Disaster Recovery Practices of Leading IT Organizations is made available due in part to the support of Vision Solutions, Iron Mountain and VizionCore.
