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Small businesses 'falling short on disaster preparedness'

23 December 2009

Many small businesses claim that customers are their top priority but are failing to protect data and services from power outages, new research suggests.

A recent survey by US firm VMware indicated less than half (47 per cent) of such companies polled have a business continuity plan that they have revised in the past two years.

However, one-third (33 per cent) of respondents have experienced an IT systems outage over the same period and 21 per cent lost critical data as a result, while 62 per cent admitted that sales or customers had gone because of such an incident.

According to Joe Andrews, VMware Group Manager of Product Marketing, virtualization technology can help businesses in averting disasters or recovering from them.

He warned that many smaller organizations "don't fully appreciate the risks of permanent damage a systems outage can have on the relationship with their customers".

Last month, a study by eHosting DataFort and the Business Continuity Management Institute found 70 out of 75 firms surveyed in the Middle East are risking data and operations by failing to implement effective disaster recovery plans.

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