Firms concerned about business continuity

Published 4 March 2008

More than 85 percent of companies surveyed claimed that threats to business continuity have grown more intense over the past twelve months; one key variable of level of corporate preparedness: CEO’s attention to the issue

Threats to business continuity are proliferating, according to a new study. A poll of IT professionals and C-level executives by SteelEye Technology has revealed concerns about the potential of IT outages to cause irreversible damage to organizations. Some 87 percent of those surveyed claimed that threats to business continuity have grown more intense over the past twelve months. Bob Williamson, vice-president of SteelEye Technology, said that firms depend more than ever on technological efficiency and are thinking more about safeguards — such as voice disaster recovery — to prevent fatal outages. “What’s also evident from this survey is that C-level priorities make a clear difference in how seriously IT takes business continuity assurance,” he said.

Some 40 percent of those surveyed said that the average IT organization is better prepared for such threats than they were a year ago. This figure, however, fell to 28 percent among those whose chief executives had not been felt to have prioritized voice disaster recovery and other such business continuity strategies. Meanwhile, a recent Teleware report asserted that British firms lack awareness of unified communications.