Downtime in Focus
IT failures have halted work for a third of UK businesses in the last six months, according to a survey of over 1,200 employees, commissioned by Adam Continuity. However, almost two thirds (64 percent) of employees would not know what to do in the event of an incident as they have not been informed of their company’s business continuity strategies.
The survey found that data failure was one of most common causes of disruption.
Philip Caulfield, Managing Director at Adam Continuity, commented:
“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 that they are dealt with quickly and to minimise their negative impact, 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.”
According to Adam Continuity, the three most common causes of data failure relate to power outages, hardware problems or broken air conditioning systems. But while data warehousing firms can protect and backup data, many businesses are missing part of the puzzle.
Caulfield continues:
“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. If a contingency plan does not incorporate a strategy for returning that data to staff who need it, in a format they can use and within an acceptable timeframe then the fact that it is stored safely is meaningless.
“In some sectors, such as finance, organizations need to comply with data continuity requirements set by the government. But the threat of lost data applies to any business that relies on information to operate successfully. This is why we ensure our clients rehearse strategies for retrieving data regularly, which means in any instances data failures are dealt with immediately and not even noticed by front office staff.”
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