Indian firms are slowly but surely waking up to the critical nature of disaster recovery and are now focusing on a strategy for the same, a survey conducted by Symantec’s Disaster Recovery (DR) says.

However, the survey – which profiled 1,000 executives worldwide – cautions that many firms don’t accord the due importance to DR and put their operations at peril. Launched today, the survey findings also talk about the impact that unforeseen events have on businesses in the absence of an effective DR plan.

Most large companies spend between 2% and 4% of their IT budget on disaster recovery planning; this is intended to avoid larger losses. Of companies that had a major loss of computerized data, 43% never reopen, 51% close within two years, and only 6% will survive long-term.

Both virtual and physical breaches have been identified as key factors driving Indian enterprises to reassess their DR strategy. The survey by Symantec brought out interesting statistics on Indian companies revisiting the DR plans- 74 percent of the respondents claimed rampant increase in virus attacks, 68 percent are looking to avoid data loss incidents and 54 percent to prevent accidental or malicious employee behavior.

"Disaster Recovery planning is not limited to virus attacks or natural calamities but various supplementary factors that hinder seamless business operations. Enterprises should identify, classify and prioritize critical assets for disaster prevention, detection, response, recovery and mitigation," said Anand Naik, director, Systems Engineering, Symantec Corporation.

"IT systems in enterprises are the backbone for business continuity and form an important aspect of DR planning. Going beyond, the right DR approach should consist of a combination of people, processes and technology," he added.

Challenges in disaster recovery testing

Twenty-two percent of Indian enterprises conduct full scenario DR tests only once a year or less because of perceived fear of business disruption and lack of resources to conduct tests. Reasons cited include: lack of staff availability (56 percent), disruption to employees (58 percent), budgetary issues (44 percent) and disruption to customers (46 percent). In addition, 32 percent admit DR testing could affect sales and revenue.

Impact of disaster incidents on businesses

Twenty-six percent of respondents report they could achieve baseline operations within one day. 23 percent reported it would take a full week to achieve 100 percent normal operations. The most feared consequences of disasters include loss of company information (76 percent), harm to their company’s brand and reputation (64 percent), negative impact on overall customer loyalty (68 percent), damage to employee productivity (66 percent) and competitive standing (50 percent).

DR Demystified

Disaster recovery is the process, policies and procedures of restoring operations critical to the resumption of business, such as regaining access to data, communications, workspace, and other business processes after a natural or human-induced disaster. Disaster recovery planning is part of a larger process known as business continuity planning (BCP).

As the disaster recovery market continues to undergo significant structural changes, the shift presents opportunities for companies that specialize in business continuity planning and offsite data protection.