"I recently stopped at a Jack in the Box drive-through and was pleased to learn that they had a vegetarian burger available that evening. I ordered the sandwich and drove off. It was only later that I discovered that the vegetarian burger was simply a normal hamburger minus the beef patty—in other words, just buns."
A much more serious surprise awaits many companies attempting to reestablish business continuity following a disaster.
According to a 2003 survey by EMC/Roper ASW, two-thirds of U.S. business executives believe they would resume normal operations within 24 hours. Their IT executives are only a little less optimistic, putting the figure at three days. The reality is much worse.
Meta Group says that most businesses that suffer a catastrophe such as a fire or flood are out of business within two years. This is supported by the National Archives & Records Administration who reports that 93 percent of businesses that lose their data center for 10 days go bankrupt within a year. A study by McGladrey and Pullen shows that 43 percent of companies experiencing disasters never recover.
Why the gap in expectations versus reality? The answer has largely to do with access. Without a viable access strategy in place, even sophisticated business continuity plans result in extended periods of downtime. Following the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, hundreds of thousands of employees were evacuated from Manhattan for up to a week. While many organizations utilized data center recovery sites to successfully and quickly restore mission-critical applications and data, their employees were unable to work because their loaner PCs did not have the required client software installed and configured.
Virtual News
Business Continuity - Where’s the Access?