Lack of IT resources and budgets putting data at risk
SCHAFFHAUSEN, Switzerland, 24 July 2012 - The Acronis
Global Disaster Recovery Index 2012 has revealed that despite the
global political, economic and environmental upheaval of the last
12 months, more than half (55%) of all health sector companies are
still not confident they could recover from a disaster. With a
third (33%) confessing they couldn't recover quickly and a further
42% saying they would suffer substantial downtime. It's clear that
should a disaster occur patients' lives would be put at risk.
The survey highlighted that the tough economic climate is
putting IT departments under increasing pressure. One in five (22%)
health companies reported a lack of IT resources as one of the
biggest challenges in regards to their backup and disaster recovery
(DR). The findings also reveal that the health sector spends the
least, compared to other sectors such as the public sector and
finance, of their IT budgets on backup and DR operations. Over a
third (34%) admitted to spending nothing at all on backup and DR in
2011.
With virtualisation promising to cut costs, the vast majority
(84%) of health companies have embraced virtualisation to some
degree. 29% state the reason for doing so is to increase
efficiency. One in five (27%) already have more than 50% of their
servers in a virtual environment. However, almost two in five (18%)
don't back up their virtual servers as often as their physical,
putting critical data at risk. Two thirds (65%) carry out a backup
of their virtual servers weekly or even less. This could in part be
attributed to the fact that over half (61%) of health and
pharmaceutical organisations admit to using separate solutions.
It's only likely to get more complex as organisations start to
integrate cloud into their IT infrastructure to lower their IT
operating costs. The health sector is positive on its outlook on
cloud services with a third (33%) predicting that more than 50% of
its IT infrastructure will be cloud based in the next year.
Like other sectors, health companies are struggling with
managing data in a hybrid environment. 36% currently use three or
more applications to back up their data. The majority (73%) agreed
that a comprehensive solution that links physical, virtual and
cloud protection would improve their backup and disaster recovery
strategy.
"Dealing with sensitive life-critical information, the health
sector is governed by strict regulations and standards. Data such
as patient records are required to be kept securely for the
long-term," said David Blackman, general manager Northern Europe
and MEA, Acronis. "Organisations in this sector are under a great
deal of pressure to cut costs but still maintain the same level of
data protection. It's clear looking at the findings that they are
still working out how to do that efficiently without letting their
backup and DR processes slip. New technology such as cloud and
virtualisation can help alleviate some of these pressures, but they
need to make sure they consolidate and centralise their backup and
DR."
Notes to the editor:
The survey was conducted by the Ponemon Institute across 18
countries in September and October 2011. Over 6,000 IT
practitioners were surveyed in organisations with no more than
1,000 seats. Details of how the index was calculated and where each
country appears can be found here:
Tweet this: Over Half of Health Organisations are
Concerned their Backup and Disaster Recovery will Fail in the Wake
of a Disaster
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.