August 20, 2007—According to a new IDG Research Services study, CIOs and CSOs are facing increasing pressure to improve their disaster recovery plans and reduce recovery time objectives (RTOs).
Sponsored by SunGard Availability Services, a provider of information availability solutions and managed services, the IDG Research Services study surveyed 215 CIO and CSO magazine subscribers to uncover trends in continuity planning and testing initiatives.
More than half (61%) of the respondents indicated they are either not very, not at all, or only somewhat confident in their company’s preparedness for a disaster. Those surveyed gave their organization an average grade of C+/B- for various components of their business continuity plans. At the same time, nearly half (46%) of the respondents report their company currently has an RTO of less than 12 hours, and nearly one quarter expect these recovery windows to decrease even further in the coming year.
When asked to identify the components they find most challenging about business continuity planning, respondents most often cited funding and people (24% and 20%, respectively), followed by management sponsorship (12%), testing (9%) and infrastructure/facilities (7%). This may directly point to the business side’s unwillingness to provide the necessary resources to support successful programs.
IDG Research Services also uncovered an alarming percentage of respondents whose companies do not test their plans often enough for them to be most effective during a disruption. A total of 80% indicated that they test their disaster recovery plans annually or less often.
Complete findings from the 2007 IDG Research Business Continuity Survey are available for download at CIO.com’s Solutions Center on Business Continuity.
Additional background materials regarding business continuity and disaster recovery planning are also available on the site.
IDG Research Services specializes in marketing and media-related research for technology marketers. For more information, see the Web site.
SunGard Availability Services is a leading provider of information availability solutions, helping to ensure that nearly 10,000 customers in North America and Europe have access to their business-critical information systems. SunGard offers a complete range of information availability solutions that include managed IT, professional and business continuity services. For more about SunGard Availability Services, see the Web site.
