Firms show lack of preparedness for disaster recovery

Survey reveals many businesses are not fully ensuring business continuity

Most businesses are ill-prepared to cope with a disaster, according to research.

A survey, commissioned by the Institute of Directors (IoD) and telecoms provider Cable & Wireless and conducted by ICM, found that less than a third (29 per cent) of companies have updated their business continuity plans since the terrorist attacks in London on 7 July.

And the study of 100 IT managers at medium-sized UK organisations found that 62 per cent have no home working provision.

Jim Norton, senior policy adviser at the IoD, says he is surprised there is still a sizeable minority of companies that are failing to take business continuity seriously.

‘Companies still do not really seem to understand the benefits of working from home, or having a work-from-home capability, irrelevant of the advantages this has for disaster recovery,’ he said.

‘You would have thought that after the 7 July terrorist attacks, as well as the past attacks by the Provisional IRA, not to mention hurricane Katrina that struck the US, the message would have hit home by now.

‘People seem to think that keeping their back-up tapes in a fire-proof safe on-site is fine. But they are underestimating the risk that they might not be able to gain access to their site at all,’ said Norton.