Companies in denial about disaster recovery
By Staff -- Manufacturing Business Technology, 11/1/2005 12:00:00 AM
Nearly one-third of U.S. businesses don't have a business continuity plan in place, according to a recent survey by AT&T and the International Association of Emergency Managers. Of the 1,200 businesses surveyed earlier this year, 40 percent also said that such planning was not a priority.
Living dangerously seems to be the rule, even though nearly two-thirds of the same companies lost business over some disaster-related disruption, and 16 percent of them lost between $100,000 and $500,000 a day. More than 40 percent haven't established redundant servers or back-up sites for critical business functions, and nearly one-third have yet to implement firewalls, intrusion protection, or password authentication.
Why the denial? "Too many companies wait until a disaster strikes to understand their own vulnerabilities," says Eric Shepcaro, AT&T VP of business strategy and development. "One of the biggest challenges we face is convincing companies to dedicate resources for contingency planning. Companies view this as an insurance policy rather than part of their overall business strategies."
