State Of Enterprise Disaster Recovery Preparedness: Q3 2008

Conventional wisdom suggests that North American enterprises spend more on IT disaster recovery (DR) than their European counterparts because of the greater risk in the United States for catastrophic natural disasters. But survey data and customer interviews suggest that, in reality, there are few differences between the regions and that both have achieved basic preparedness. This reflects several realities and trends: 1) Most disaster declarations and major disruptions are the result of more mundane events that all enterprises must prepare for; 2) there is less and less tolerance for downtime in a 24x7 economy; and 3) the hardware, software, facilities, and services for advanced DR are not as cost-prohibitive as they used to be. For IT professionals, this means that the work that lies ahead has less to do with the "how to" of DR and more to do with improving process maturity, embedding continuity in the IT culture, testing more thoroughly, involving the business in every phase of planning and preparedness, and aligning with other risk management disciplines. This will help IT professionals move beyond DR to IT service continuity.