Quorum has released results from its first disaster recovery survey. The survey, which comprised questions posted to Survey Monkey and SpiceWorks, polled 169 IT professionals from small, mid-sized and large businesses in various vertical markets.
Key findings from the survey included:
Almost 50 percent of respondents indicated their companies have a hardware-based data backup system in place; 40.9 percent have a hardware-based recovery system in place.
A natural disaster is considered the primary cause of system downtime, according to 33.8 percent (the majority) of respondents.
More than 67 percent claimed they would feel comfortable erasing their company’s critical data and restoring it from a backup.
The majority of respondents (42.9 percent) say they test their system’s functionality and capabilities once a quarter; 21.4 percent never test their system.
Forty-five percent believe their company would lose anywhere between $1,000 and $5,000 in one hour of downtime (during peak activity).
If IT spend is any indication, disaster recovery is still a focus for businesses. Almost 50 percent of respondents indicated 11 percent to 25 percent of their companies’ IT budget is allocated to disaster recovery this year. No doubt, stories of system downtime caused by hurricanes and tornadoes have driven this at least in part. And, in fact, the majority of respondents (33.8 percent) indicated that they believe natural disasters are the most common cause of IT downtime (followed by human error at 24.8 percent, software error or maintenance at 21.7 percent, and hardware failure at 19.7 percent). However, a recent study showed that human error and changes in hardware, software or systems are more likely to cause system downtime than any hurricane or tornado.
