22 Dec 2008

Mid-sized firms urged not be caught out on disaster recovery

An industry expert has indicated that there could be a gap in the disaster recovery solutions market.

Howard Marks, writing at InformationWeek, commented that some medium-sized businesses could be struggling to plan and quip themselves for disasters.

Large firms often have access to a range of specialised solutions and smaller companies often employ ad hoc measures, Mr Marks noted.

However, medium-sized firms can be "caught in the middle", needing more than basic measures but unable to afford more expensive disaster recovery solutions, Mr Marks suggested.

He urged such companies to consider new technologies entering the disaster recovery market and to spend time classifying applications and managing their expectations for disasters.

"The fundamental issues are which apps[spell out?] are required to run the business, how much data can be lost, and how long you can wait to restore functionality," Mr Marks said.

His comments come after John Fell and Clare Francis, writing for Computing earlier this month, said hosted business continuity plans could strengthen companies' operational resilience.