Business continuity comes to China

This is definitely not like bringing tea to China: London-based AMI-Partners say in a new study that small and medium businesses (SMBs) in China invested $16.7 billion on information technology in 2005. Half of this was spent on computing-related technologies including PCs, servers, printers, and peripherals. New PC adopting by SMBs will continue to push computing-related spending, but a shift in spending patterns is expected in 2006 among current PC-owning SMBs as their investment plans stay away from basic hardware to focus more on connectivity, software, services, and business solutions, including business continuity.

The emphasis on business continuity will find expression in attention toward faster connectivity, improving their operating environment, training their internal employees, and enhancing business continuity and security measures. AMI says that business continuity is a relatively young discipline and, as such, its importance has yet to be fully recognized. Recent global events, including terrorism acts, natural disasters, and widespread epidemics, lead Chinese SMBs to realize the importance of ensuring that their business can be quickly recovered in order to minimize interruptions. Security is now seen as an important element of business continuity and security and storage investments are expected to grow hand-in-hand.

-read more at AMI Web site