Study: Focus on disaster recovery needed

[InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>]

http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/recovery/story/0,10801,87272,00.html

Story by Blair McQuillan
ITWorld Canada
NOVEMBER 18, 2003 

TORONTO - Despite recent examples such as the blackout in Ontario and 
raging forest fires in British Columbia, many Canadian organizations 
still fail to see the need for a comprehensive disaster recovery plan. 

This was reflected in the fourth annual national IT survey conducted 
by Athabasca University and CIO Canada magazine, which found 44 
percent of the more than 2,500 respondents did not believe their 
organizations had a disaster recovery plan in place. 

"Bearing in mind that our respondents are (IT) managers and 
professionals…it is reasonable to assume that if plans exist then they 
should know about it," said Peter Carr, executive director of 
Athabasca University's Centre for Innovative Management. 

Carr said a failure on the part of senior management teams to keep up 
with technology and its role in day-to-day business is to blame for 
the lack of comprehensive disaster recovery planning. 

"We went through a phase where technology was viewed fairly negatively 
after the dot-com collapse," he said. "At that time we saw senior 
management teams take their eye off the ball as far as technology was 
concerned. It became less important to them. At the same time, 
technology did proliferate and become a more important part of the 
business." 

Osama Arafat, CEO of Toronto-based hosting service provider Q9 
Networks Inc., said he is at a loss to figure out why some companies 
continually fail to realize the need for a disaster recovery plan. 

"We continue to be surprised and amazed at how many companies have 
limited or no disaster recovery plans," he said. "My best guess is 
that everybody thinks it's not going to happen to them." 

Arafat said he suspects that the number of companies lacking an 
"effective" disaster recovery plan is probably higher than 44 percent. 

"How many people have effective disaster recovery plans that are not 
just in a dusty binder somewhere, but ones that are continually tested 
and will work in the case of a disaster?" 

On a more positive note, the study showed increased optimism about the 
state of IT budgets. A total of 42 percent of respondents predict 
their IT budgets will rise in the next 12 months, while just 19 
percent feel they will decline. 

"This is a significantly stronger outlook for the technology sector 
than we've seen in the past three years," Carr said. "In 2001, only 34 
percent of our respondents believed that their technology budgets 
would increase, while 24 percent reported a decrease." 

The study also found: 

* 35 percent of respondents said their security systems are routinely 
  bypassed by employees, and there has been no improvement in security 
  practices in Canadian organizations during the past three years. 

* 38 percent of respondents indicated their organizations were keeping 
  up with their U.S. counterparts in e-business. A decline of 7%from 
  the previous year. 

* 35 percent of respondents said they feel their senior managers make 
  good decisions about IT.

Overall, Carr said the survey shows the IT industry is rebounding, but 
there is a definite need for executives to take a new approach in the 
way they manage their technology. 

"The outlook for technology is strong, but we need to see a radical 
shift in the orientation of whole senior management teams," he said. 
"Technology is now something you can't leave to the technology 
department. It's something that [senior managers] need to have some 
capability in managing." 



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