Indifference to business continuity puts UK firms at risk

UK businesses may be putting themselves at risk with an indifferent attitude towards business continuity, according to a survey of 950 firms across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

The survey, by Vanson Bourne for Hitachi Data Systems, found that just 19% of UK businesses rate disaster recovery and business continuity as an important driver behind their storage investment, and 6% said it was not important.

Across the rest of Europe, the Middle East and Africa, nearly a third of companies surveyed considered business continuity a top driver behind storage investment.

The research also revealed that 13% of UK companies surveyed do not have a formal strategy for disaster recovery and business continuity - by far the highest in all EMEA, where the average was 2%.

Only 25% of UK companies had tested their business continuity strategy within the past 12 months, the lowest of any country and well below the EMEA average of 80%.

Steve Murphy, UK managing director at Hitachi Data Systems, said, "This is definitely a wake-up call for UK businesses. Every company should prioritise business continuity and have a tried-and-tested disaster recovery plan in place to ensure that they can meet the challenges of an unforeseen incident."

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Vanson Bourne website >>