The annual study shows that in 2011, the number of businesses without adequate disaster recovery planning has actually risen when compared to last year, when just 47 per cent of SMBs lacked an adequate plan of action.

SMBs were considered to be firms with under 1000 employees and almost 1210 businesses were questioned as part of the survey, with those organisations staffed by under 100 people being at the greatest risk.

Symantec’s Bernard Laroche, said that SMBs are showing that they are still unable to protect themselves in the event of a catastrophic event, whether it be severe weather conditions, downtime or data loss.

Forty-one per cent of the businesses who admitted to lacking a plan for disaster recovery went on to mention that they had never even thought about the concept of preparing for disasters. Thirty-six per cent said that they planned to create contingencies in the first half of the year.

Startlingly, it was suggested by 52 per cent of those without disaster recovery plans that IT systems are not intrinsically important to the operation of a modern business, which equates to a quarter of the total polled.

Mr Laroche said that this statistic alone was one of the most worrying unearthed by the study, particularly since the businesses questioned operate in various sectors and markets.

In the past 12 months an average SMB could expect to experience six periods of downtime, according to the study. Among the biggest threats to business continuity were power outages, natural disasters and the activities of cybercriminals.

Each day of downtime costs an average of £8000 for SMBs and serious data loss by customers and clients has also resulted, because of technical issues and halted services, with a third of respondents noting that this was the case.

Most small businesses do not plan for disaster recovery is a post from Backup Technology's Blog. Contact us today for further information on our Online Backup and Business Continuity services.

An automated message stated, “We are currently experiencing a high volume of calls due to a processing error by the Bank of Scotland. If a transaction has been duplicated this will be automatically refunded. The Bank of Scotland have a recovery plan in place.”

I was promised a full refund for being charged twice for the same goods. Well its five days after the mistake and the recovery plan seems to be taking its time, as I am yet to receive any refund. Not convenient for myself, and one would guess thousands of other banking customers.

Upon looking further into the issue, it appears that similar problems have previously affected customers of Bank of Scotland who are now part of the Lloyds Banking Group. In 2009 shops across the UK received complaints from customers accusing them of being charged twice for the same transaction. The fault was located to electronic point of sale systems and their chip and pin cards.

It is very surprising to see that two different banking groups have experienced similar issues within a short space of time. In both instances it has led to money being incorrectly taken from customer accounts, and the timing of the latest problem comes at the point where many people’s finances are stretched to the limit after the Christmas and New Year period.

It is very possible that the mistake could also lead to people receiving bank charges for going overdrawn and have transactions refused due to insufficient funds. Whilst I am sure that the banks will eventually refund these it is an unnecessary hassle and customers should not have to chase for refunds.

Whilst mistakes can always happen, customers should have been notified rather than having the shock of finding out themselves, and it should not have taken over 5 days to resolve.

It does call into question what Backup, Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity solutions the banks have in place to enable them to recover from such incidents.

Natwest and RBS customers experience overcharging is a post from Backup Technology's Blog. Contact us today for further information on our Online Backup and Business Continuity services.

A recent survey conducted by Applied Research, on the state of backup and recovery capabilities in virtual environments, showed that nearly half of enterprise data stored on virtual platforms is rarely backed up and that over 60 percent of virtualised servers are not incorporated into disaster recovery plans. Considering disaster recovery now comprises of more than a quarter of annual IT budgets this is a worrying sign.

As the market highlights there is certainly no shortage of disaster recovery solutions designed to protect virtual environments. The fact of the matter is that virtualisation actually makes recovery of servers and infrastructures that much easier by increasing performance and flexibility. In today’s world we are seeing organisations host infrastructures in the cloud, so it is strange why there is still this inability or unwillingness to ensure successful backup of virtual environments. As many solution providers demonstrate the cloud provides a much more flexible backup and disaster recovery framework then traditional solutions and often at lower prices.

Reliability has often been an area of concern for organisations looking to implement virtual environments especially with mission critical systems and data. The fact of the matter is that virtual environments performance and resilience is excellent, although however good a solution is one still can’t stress the importance of data backup and disaster recovery. The variety and expertise of backup and recovery providers’ worldwide means no data or systems should ever be excluded. Such features as CDP and ‘hot’ database backups mean that not only recovery time objectives are met but recovery point objectives are achieved.

Data is the lifeblood of any organisation, so every measure should be taken to protect it. Virtual infrastructures are playing an increasingly vital role in enterprise data infrastructure, but to leave it out of the DR equation is surely a step too far.

Disaster Recovery is lacking in Virtualised Environments is a post from Backup Technology's Blog. Contact us today for further information on our Online Backup and Business Continuity services.

In an interview with V3.co.uk it was revealed that justifying business continuity strategies to those operating at a management level could be difficult. Roger Bearpark, who manages IT for Hillingdon council in London, said that he no longer tries to promote data recovery unless he has hard statistics showing the financial impact of a disaster which could have been averted by proper implementation of contingencies.

Neil Edmonds, who looks after the IT needs of the Salvation Army, said that his superiors were complacent even in the face of real disasters including the July 7th bombings in 2005. Many were reliant on the blindly optimistic mantra of ‘it is not going to happen to us’.

David Weston of Oxford University Press said that business continuity had become a big part of his role at the publishers, but that most other departments did not fully appreciate the importance of the IT element of the planning process. Seminars and tutorials as to how to recover data after a disaster have been run by Mr Weston and his team, but attendance by other members of staff has been minimal.

The trio of IT professionals were then questioned as to whether they kept their disaster recovery in house or chose to outsource and their reasons for doing so.

Mr Weston said that it was more cost effective for OUP to outsource its data backup to a third party provider, as although it owns an appropriate property for server operation, the costs of the technology and maintenance would be too great.

Mr Bearpark explained that because many councils shared resources for disaster recovery and overflow data storage, it would be difficult to rely on a third-party provider. Both on-site and remote storage are operated in-house by Mr Bearparks’ IT team.

Mr Edmonds revealed that the Salvation Army relies upon multiple providers for its recovery solutions and a recent study by one of the firms showed that the charity could only continue to operate if its internal email system was the only IT asset damaged in a disaster.

Business managers ignore disaster recovery needs is a post from Backup Technology's Blog. Contact us today for further information on our Online Backup and Business Continuity services.

It has long been recognised that this ‘divide’ creates more problems than it solves, after all most businesses could not continue to operate successfully if their IT services were unavailable for a period of time. Depending on the nature of your business this may well range from a few hours to several days.

Talking from experience as the UK’s Leading Online Backup & Disaster Recovery Provider a disaster recovery plan should interface with the overall business continuity management plan, be clear and concise, focus on the key activities required to recover the critical IT services, be tested reviewed and updated on a regular basis, have an owner, whilst enabling the recovery objectives to be met.

Recovery Time Objectives (RTO) do differ for organisations but there are common aims that apply to all. The two key elements which many organisations adhere to are how long can the business continue to function without the critical IT services and how quickly can all systems be recovered from the time DR is invoked.

With the economic climate as it is today it’s no surprise to hear that IT departments are often asked to do more with less. Although this can result in DR testing falling by the wayside a recent survey actually shows that DR testing is on the up as organisations understand the importance of data to operations. It was shown that 35% of organisations worldwide with a DR plan do not test it more than once a year and although that number is actually a 12% improvement from 2008, it is still poor.

A lack of IT staff time was the top reason given for not testing more, with 48% pointing to that. Disruption to employees, budget restraints, and disruption to customers were all mentioned by at least 40% of respondents.

The report also indicates that 59% of respondents said they test disaster recovery plans regularly but 28% test once a year or less. Most of the blame for not testing went to lack of a DR site, inadequate staffing and money. The introduction of Virtualised DR environments should eliminate the restriction of DR testing. Please visit the following link to find out more about Virtual Disaster Recovery and how full system restores can be attained without disruption to live environments.

Statistics aside it is best practice to conduct DR testing to ensure business continuity whilst identifying deficiencies that need to be addressed. DR plan testing also helps evaluate the ability of the IT staff to implement the plan quickly and effectively. Each IT contingency plan element should be tested to confirm the accuracy of individual recovery procedures and the overall effectiveness of the plan.

The following areas to be covered in a DR test should include:
Full System Recovery from the backup media to an alternate platform
Coordination among recovery teams
Internal and external connectivity
System performance using alternate equipment
Restoration of normal operations
Notification procedures

Experts advise to test DR plans at all costs despite the hardships. Independent backup consultants suggest that companies do a large scale disaster recovery test once a year, with smaller, alternating tests throughout the rest of the year. While experts acknowledge that testing isn’t easy and does involve resource, refusing to test is putting an entire organisation at risk.

So if you haven’t scheduled a full Disaster Recovery test book one today to ensure your organisation can resume operations should disaster strike.

The Risks of Failing to Perform Disaster Recovery Tests is a post from Backup Technology's Blog. Contact us today for further information on our Online Backup and Business Continuity services.

A report, conducted by market research firm IntelliQuest, states that American businesses surrender close to £6 billion annually to data loss from power failure, computer viruses, human error, and user negligence. Many companies pinned the price of replacing their data loss at a whopping £15,000 to £150,000 or higher per incident. So what is the likelihood of data loss?

Data loss is a serious and costly problem that strikes businesses globally on a daily basis. According to reports over 6% of hardware will suffer severe data loss in any given year, totalling 4.6 million incidents in the U.S alone last year. With data loss costing businesses billions of pounds worldwide each year, both in lost productivity and data recovery, it is clear to see why data is a company’s most valuable asset.

In today’s world data loss could mean the difference between the life and death of a company. Therefore whatever the cause of data loss having the ability to recover data quickly and accurately is essential. Bearing this closely in mind what safeguards can one put in place for critical data and intellectual property? The solution is secure offsite/online data backup.

By securely backing up a company’s data using an online backup system organisations can potentially save thousands of hours of productivity and man-hours that have been spent generating data. Any good backup solution should be fully scalable so there is no excuse for SME’s and Multinational Enterprises of any size not to utilise the industry standard for data backup and recovery. So how can an organisation identify if their practices are insufficient?

The answer is disaster recovery testing. Best practice is to fully recover an entire environment to ensure that should the worst happen an organisation can recover all critical operating systems within the required time period.

Data loss is costly and time consuming is a post from Backup Technology's Blog. Contact us today for further information on our Online Backup and Business Continuity services.

During a recent study by Gartner (The Broken State of Backup by Dave Russell), there were some quite terrifying statistics highlighting one key fact – a backup and recovery strategy is only worth having if it is stress tested regularly.In fact, Gartner went so far as saying that exercising Disaster Recovery Plans is the most critical aspect of any business’s DR plans (after Day One implementation).

Here are the statistics (based on a study of how successful the last recovery exercise was):

28% of all recovery tests were fully successful (all service levels were met)

This figure is staggeringly low. Over 70% of all business who have spent time, money and resource on implementing a backup and recovery strategy are happy to admit in a survey that their recovery testing failed.

How badly did the recovery tests go? Gartner’s study drilled down even further:

11% of businesses who performed a recovery test admitted that the exercise was CANCELLED, because problems could not be resolved.

Incredibly, 1 in 10 recovery tests according to Gartner, are a complete failure. Or thinking about it another way, 1 in 10 businesses who have invested valuable budget in a recovery plan are completely wasting their money.

50% of businesses said that the recovery exercise encountered problems.

Exactly half of all companies would be in a very dire situation if they experienced real life data loss. One also thinks whether these businesses are meeting any compliance obligations they may have. It must be doubtful.

The balance of 11% were not sure how the exercise went. My guess would be not very well, and not knowing implies a false sense of security.

The message is simple. Once you have implemented your backup strategy – whether using traditional tape or an online backup service  –  it is essential to perform regular disaster recovery tests to ensure that every single server can be recovered within your RTO (Recovery Time Objective).

Backup is Nothing Without Disaster Recovery Testing is a post from Backup Technology's Blog. Contact us today for further information on our Online Backup and Business Continuity services.

If today’s economic climate isn’t applying enough pressure to HSBC then The Financial Services Authority most definitely is. The FSA has fined HSBC £3m for failing to properly look after its customers’ information and private business data. HSBC’s failure to follow procedure has led to at least two losses of customer data emphasising the fact that no organisation is too big to avoid scrutiny. 
 
In this specific instance the FSA investigated the bank and found unencrypted customer details on open shelves and unlocked cabinets breaching storage requirements. Customer details were also sent via the post or couriers to third parties, and staff were not trained in dealing with the risks associated with identity theft.

With technical advancements made in recent years there are multiple organisations that specialise in the storage of data in an encrypted format. Therefore with these many solutions available on the market today surely there is no excuse for any sized organisation not to be highly efficient in data storage and recovery, especially if financial penalties are in place. 

The investigations into HSBC’s data losses and poor practices have been identified over a period of years.
In April 2007 HSBC Actuaries lost details on 1,917 pension scheme members. In July HSBC Actuaries, along with two other subsidiaries, were warned by HSBC Group Insurance’s compliance department to sort out data security. But in February 2008 HSBC Life sent an unencrypted CD through the post containing details of 180,000 customers. The CD was lost.

HSBC Life UK Limited (HSBC Life) was fined £1,610,000, HSBC Actuaries and Consultants Limited (HSBC Actuaries) was fined £875,000 and HSBC Insurance Brokers Limited (HSBC Insurance Brokers) was fined £700,000.

Margaret Cole, director of enforcement at the FSA, said: “These breaches are very disappointing. All three firms failed their customers by being careless with personal details which could have ended up in the hands of criminals. It is also worrying that increasing awareness around the importance of keeping personal information safe and the dangers of fraud did not prompt the firms to do more to protect their customers’ details.”

This makes us wonder what other organisations are using for data storage, are they using improper practices with customer and business data? How many other organisations are passing under the radar by implementing inadequate data storage procedures?

HSBC Fined £3,000,000 for Data Breaches is a post from Backup Technology's Blog. Contact us today for further information on our Online Backup and Business Continuity services.

“Asigra Inc., a leading Cloud backup and recovery software provider, today announced certification with Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V. Asigra simplifies and automates backup and recovery for Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V customers, providing the benefits of highly efficient data protection without the need to install I/O, memory and management-intensive backup software on virtual machines targeted for protection…………….”

“Our compatibility with leaders in server virtualization underscores our commitment to deliver on the promise of virtual server efficiency,” said Eran Farajun, EVP for Asigra. “By supporting Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V, users are provided another technology tool in their arsenal to achieve exceptional cost and operational advantages, allowing focus on more strategic IT initiatives.”

Asigra Inc have always led from the front on virtual machine protection.

Backup Technology were invited to represent Asigra at VM World in September last year, and we have a large number of our customers who already use our online backup service to protect their virtual environments. In addition, our recently launched Virtual Disaster Recovery solution allows our clients the chance to recover individual servers or their whole infrastructure into our virtual environment, and this can then be presented to allow remote operations to continue.

We already offer the option for VM Ware environments where we can either protect either the base VM file (VMDK) or agentlessly protect the server in the normal way. VM Ware support has been offered since May 2006.

It is very pleasing to be a major partner of such a pro active vendor such as Asigra – who not only react to the moves from other major players but invest the R&D (and most importantly the Q&A) time to deliver robust backup and recovery for the very latest applications and systems.

Windows 2008 Hyper-V Backup and Recovery is a post from Backup Technology's Blog. Contact us today for further information on our Online Backup and Business Continuity services.

For the last year we have also been working with our customers to enable them to carry out complete Disaster Recovery Tests. The key difference is that rather than recovering 3 or 4 key servers, we are able to go much further and restore every server in the network to different hardware to ensure that in a Disaster situation our customers would be able to function with the minimum disruption to their business.

Previously this was never possible as clients did not have the spare hardware onsite to allow them to recover dozens of servers, and they also didn’t have the time to set aside a week to perform the testing.
To address this we developed a method of recovery which is revolutionary as we provide the hardware and also take care of all of the work, so that our customers have to do is log in via a secure VPN to check that everything is fully recovered.

To date we have performed successful recoveries with networks of over 60 servers including domain controllers, multiple operating systems, email servers, database servers and file servers. Technically it can be very challenging trying to recover complex configurations of things like clustered Exchange, but it is hugely rewarding to log in with a customer and go through server by server confirming successful recoveries.

The key benefit for us as a company is that having completed the Disaster Recovery test our clients know that they can fully recover their operations and they have a realistic expectation of the recovery times for each server. Armed with this information it makes a real life DR a far more straightforward process as the panic element is removed as the key procedures that each user on site has to follow is documented and rehashed on at least an annual basis.

For more information on our Disaster Recovery services please visit: http://www.backup-technology.com/disaster-recovery/

The importance of Disaster Recovery Testing is a post from Backup Technology's Blog. Contact us today for further information on our Online Backup and Business Continuity services.