Loss protection – data and people

With barely half (53%) of industrial firms confident they could recover quickly from a disaster, according to Acronis' global disaster recovery (DR) index 2012, it appears that business continuity is at risk. David Blackman, general manager at the data backup and disaster recovery specialist, blames the global downturn, which, he says, is forcing companies to focus on cost reduction. For him, this explains why nearly half (45%) of those surveyed cited lack of budget and IT resources as reasons for under-investment in data protection. Astonishingly though, the report reveals that 11% spend nothing whatsoever on backup and DR. And Blackman makes the point that in a highly competitive sector, where tolerance for downtime is virtually zero, it's worrying that only 45% say they would not suffer substantial downtime in the event of a serious incident. "The pressures on the industrial sector are escalating. It has a reputation for quality management, optimisation and automation, yet it's clear that backup and DR strategies are not keeping up with the rising adoption of virtualisation," he states. "Organisations need to embrace new technology to help them consolidate and standardise their backup and DR plans. In doing so, confidence levels will rise and IT managers' roles will become easier." Blackman is not alone in pointing to new technologies, such as virtualisation and cloud services, as key to enabling much-needed efficiencies – and not only for improving DR systems. However, he warns, quite rightly, that they are also bringing new challenges. Indeed, just over two thirds (67%) of industrial firms' IT managers surveyed say their greatest problem in a hybrid environment is moving data between physical, virtual and cloud environments. But there is another issue here that has more to do with people than systems. As IT continues to increase in importance, so the role for IT staff grows in depth and breadth – making it ever more difficult to find, train and keep the right individuals. As a result, IT staff turnover is high, with companies facing the ongoing threat of losing highly-paid, well-trained staff once they have gained the knowledge and experience necessary to move up the career ladder. And so the pendulum is likely to swing again towards outsourcing – with its own challenges.