January 13, 2010 -- I happened to be on the phone with Symantec last week to discuss the results of their annual State of the Data Center Study when an earthquake shook California. In my mind, the event reiterated the need for frequent testing of disaster recovery (DR) plans. That's why I was surprised to learn that a growing number of users are letting DR plans go untouched for long periods of time.
Once the quake subsided, Matthew Lodge, a senior director with Symantec's information management group, told me that DR plans are vulnerable and have become a victim of a decrease in funding.
According to the Symantec 2010 State of the Data Center Study, which is based on surveys of 1,780 data center managers in 26 countries in November 2009, there is room for improvement in disaster recovery.
One-third of those surveyed said their DR plans are undocumented or need work and important IT components, such as cloud computing, remote office and virtual servers are often not included in the DR plan. To make matters worse, almost 33% of enterprises haven't re-evaluated their disaster recovery plan in the last 12 months.
"One of the hardest hit areas of the data center in terms of funding is disaster recovery," said Lodge. "A lot of companies haven't refreshed or reevaluated their DR plan in quite some time."
It seems IT staffers are focusing their efforts elsewhere. The survey revealed the top concerns in the data to be increased complexity and too many applications.
One-third of all enterprises say staff productivity is hampered by too many applications. Adding to the complexity is the continued increase in data causing 71% of organizations to consider data reduction technologies such as deduplication, according to Symantec.
Most enterprises have 10 or more data center initiatives rated as somewhat or absolutely important and 50% expect "significant" changes to their data centers in 2010.
Lodge said 50% of all enterprises say applications are growing somewhat/quickly and half are finding it difficult and costly to meet service level agreements (SLAs).
Mid-sized enterprise data centers are weathering the storm best. Lodge said mid-sized enterprises are more agile, show more activity, and predict major changes to the data center and new applications in 2010. Mid-sized enterprises also place a higher importance on staffing and training than their small or large enterprise counterparts.
Mid-sized enterprises are more aggressive and pioneering than either small or large enterprises. They are adopting new technology initiatives such as cloud computing, replication, and deduplication at 11-17 percent higher rates than small or large enterprises.
Not surprisingly, Symantec's answer to the aforementioned challenges is software. "Let the software help you out. Users need to look for more areas of integration and need to adopt an automated, policy-based approach to management rather than going for a raft of individual tools for the data center," Lodge said.
Some additional tidbits from the Symantec 2010 State of the Data Center Study:
Security, backup and recovery, and continuous data protection are the most important initiatives in 2010, ahead of virtualization.
Staffing and budgets remain tight with half of all enterprises reporting they are somewhat/extremely understaffed.
Virtual machine protection continues to be a focus for enterprises, with 82% of enterprises considering virtual-machine technologies in 2010
Check out the InfoStor disaster recovery page for the latest news and view on the state of DR.
Showing posts with label Disaster Recovery. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Disaster Recovery. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Friday, October 2, 2009
SMB DR preparedness is not what it seems
October 2, 2009 -- Perception is not reality when it comes to disaster recovery preparedness in the small and medium-sized business (SMB) world.
In a former life, I stocked shelves and handled inventory for a large, upscale retail outfit. Being the geek that I am, I took notice of the IT setup in the store, including a small tape drive buried under boxes and irregular garments. It was painfully obvious that it was not being used properly. In fact, I doubted whether any of the staff knew what it was.
Eventually I asked a manager about it and was informed that yes, it was part of the store manager's job to perform daily tape backups of the store's transaction and sales information.
However, in my tenure as stock-boy extraordinaire that tape drive was never used. Not once. It boggled my mind. But it seems that some things never change.
According to the findings of Symantec's "2009 SMB Disaster Preparedness Survey," reveal that SMBs are confident in their DR plans. Eighty-two percent of respondents say they are somewhat/very satisfied with their disaster plans, and 84% say they feel somewhat/very protected in case of a disaster.
The reality of the situation, despite how confident they feel, is grim. According to the survey, SMBs do not back up their computer systems as frequently as they should: Only 23% backup their computer systems daily and less than half back up weekly.
The average SMB has experienced three outages within the past 12 months, with the leading causes being virus or hacker attacks, power outages or natural disasters. The approximate impact on the bottom line per outage is $15,000 per day. That's real money for small businesses.
The large retail chain I worked for is still in business. They continue to thrive. I can't speak to whether they have experienced outages or whether downtime has cost them cash or customers.
Perhaps the perception-reality gap is more evidence that consolidating and centralizing the backup process makes sense. Having a tape drive at a remote location doesn't ensure your data will be protected when an outage hits.
Symantec makes several useful recommendations to SMB customers in its report, which can be found on the company's website.
Keep up on the latest DR and business continuity news in our DR topic center.
In a former life, I stocked shelves and handled inventory for a large, upscale retail outfit. Being the geek that I am, I took notice of the IT setup in the store, including a small tape drive buried under boxes and irregular garments. It was painfully obvious that it was not being used properly. In fact, I doubted whether any of the staff knew what it was.
Eventually I asked a manager about it and was informed that yes, it was part of the store manager's job to perform daily tape backups of the store's transaction and sales information.
However, in my tenure as stock-boy extraordinaire that tape drive was never used. Not once. It boggled my mind. But it seems that some things never change.
According to the findings of Symantec's "2009 SMB Disaster Preparedness Survey," reveal that SMBs are confident in their DR plans. Eighty-two percent of respondents say they are somewhat/very satisfied with their disaster plans, and 84% say they feel somewhat/very protected in case of a disaster.
The reality of the situation, despite how confident they feel, is grim. According to the survey, SMBs do not back up their computer systems as frequently as they should: Only 23% backup their computer systems daily and less than half back up weekly.
The average SMB has experienced three outages within the past 12 months, with the leading causes being virus or hacker attacks, power outages or natural disasters. The approximate impact on the bottom line per outage is $15,000 per day. That's real money for small businesses.
The large retail chain I worked for is still in business. They continue to thrive. I can't speak to whether they have experienced outages or whether downtime has cost them cash or customers.
Perhaps the perception-reality gap is more evidence that consolidating and centralizing the backup process makes sense. Having a tape drive at a remote location doesn't ensure your data will be protected when an outage hits.
Symantec makes several useful recommendations to SMB customers in its report, which can be found on the company's website.
Keep up on the latest DR and business continuity news in our DR topic center.
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