With disaster recovery a business critical issue today, it is worrying that of the IT directors surveyed who do not have a back up and recovery plan in place, a third (33%) cited it is not important for the business. A further third (33%) said lack of time, money and commitment from the board was the main reason.

While 92% of businesses surveyed admit to having a back-up and recovery plan in place, only 23% of these test them on a monthly basis. Approximately a fourth (26%) test every three to six months, ten per cent test once a year, while, a further ten per cent do not know if they test at all. Incidents such as this year’s floods highlight how unexpected disasters can be and why it is essential for businesses to implement and regularly test business continuity plans.

“With increasing pressures on businesses to retain vast amounts of data and make it available on demand, it is especially important for enterprises in these sectors to have effective, reliable disaster recovery strategies in place,” said John Coulston, enterprise marketing manager, Dell UK. “The results of this survey demonstrate that even with large enterprises who have implemented back up and recovery plans, many still aren’t aware of the numerous considerations that come with managing data storage and archiving requirements.”