SCHAFFHAUSEN, Switzerland, 4th March, 2009 -Research
carried out by Acronis reveals that over one-third of UK schools
(37%) are sitting on a data loss time bomb that puts everything
from pupil's coursework, teacher's lesson plans and electronic
school records at risk because they do not have a full data backup
and recovery policy in place. As a result, in the last twelve
months, one in ten (7%) UK schools have suffered an IT failure from
which they were unable to recover their data.
The survey also reveals that over half (57%) of respondents
think that the credit crunch may impact significantly on the budget
for their school's backup and recovery solutions during 2009. This
could mean many schools will risk going without data backup and
recovery solutions - potentially impacting on exam pass rates and
the school's reputation. Alternatively, they will need to find
budget from elsewhere to ensure all their digital assets remain
protected, should the worst happen.
Kevin Moreau, general manager of Acronis UK & Ireland, said:
"Education organisations are increasing their reliance on IT
resources - and therefore increasing the volume of their digital
data. This means that the chance of a data loss, along with the
size, scale and seriousness of a disruption, is rocketing and just
like any other organisation, they are vulnerable in the event that
their data is wiped by a virus or accidently erased."
Moreau concludes: "In the current economic climate, education
establishments should be seeking software that doubles up to
provide efficient data backup and recovery as well as protection
from PC viruses. With 51% of schools suffering from severe system
downtime each year, tools such as disk imaging software provide an
extremely cost-effective solution that ensure a secure backup, but
also offer the ability to roll back in time to the system's last
'good state', if they are hit by a virus outbreak."
This survey was taken from a sample of 127 IT
decision makers in the education sector. The interviews were
conducted face-to-face in January 2009.
About Acronis
Acronis is a global provider of storage management software that
enables corporations and individuals to move, manage and maintain
digital assets. Acronis sells innovative solutions for disaster
recovery, server consolidation and virtualisation migration, which
allow users to maintain business continuity and reduce downtime in
computing environments. Acronis software products are sold in more
than 180 countries and are available in 15 languages. For
additional information, please visit www.acronis.co.uk
About Acronis:
Acronis is a leader in AI-native cyber protection, unifying data protection, cybersecurity, IT operations and hybrid infrastructure to deliver business continuity, security and compliance with less cost and complexity. More than 21,000 service providers trust Acronis to protect over 750,000 businesses in 150 countries. Acronis is headquartered in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. For more information, visit www.acronis.com.