Business Continuity

Quotes:

"More companies are trying to become a real-time enterprise (RTE), but in the race to get there, many enterprises are not implementing critical business continuity plans, according to Gartner, Inc."

"Gartner analysts said less than 25 percent of Global 2000 enterprises have invested in comprehensive business continuity planning, and 50 percent have fully tested disaster-recovery plans."

"'For many real-time enterprises, a four- to 24-hour site outage would cause irreparable damage to the enterprise,'" said Donna Scott, vice-president and research director for Gartner. "Because the risks are greater with real-time enterprises, the business continuity plan must address new scenarios, and BC processes must integrate with a greater number of enterprise processes."

"'With real-time enterprise applications, it is critical that business continuity be built into the life cycle for new applications and business process enhancement projects so that availability and recovery requirements are built into the architecture and design,'" said Scott."

Source: "Gartner Says Less Than 25 Percent of Global 2000 Enterprises Have Invested in Comprehensive Business Continuity Planning," October 8, 2002

"As bankruptcy and large mergers continue in the network service provider (NSP) market, Gartner, Inc. advises enterprises to adopt a multi-NSP strategy to ensure business continuity and to view the troubled market as an opportunity to renegotiate contracts."

"Gartner expects the global NSP market to continue to suffer until at least 2004. "'It is likely that more consolidation will occur, more NSPs will file for bankruptcy and healthier NSPs will grow by acquiring distressed assets at bargain prices,'" said Jay Pultz, vice president and research director for Gartner. "Enterprises should act quickly on the opportunity that current market conditions offer."

"Among other actions, Gartner advises enterprises to lock in rates with NSPs immediately because prices are beginning to increase. Enterprises that have not renegotiated pricing for 12 to 18 months should do so now, because today’s rates are likely lower than what enterprises are paying under current contracts. Moreover, enterprises should take this opportunity to negotiate more flexible "out" clauses to protect the enterprise if the NSP can no longer provide adequate services."

Source : "Gartner Says Enterprises Must Quickly Address Challenges and Opportunities Created by Network Service Provider Turmoil," September 24, 2002

"The events of September 11 were a high profile wakeup call for small and midsize businesses (SMBs) to assess the risk of their business in the case of a disaster and their ability to recover from such a crisis."

"Gartner analysts said the majority of SMBs have traditionally under invested in business continuity planning. One reason why is that the disaster recovery and business continuity markets historically have been centered around robust and expensive solutions that can be cost prohibitive for SMBs. Gartner estimates that only 35 percent of SMBs have a comprehensive disaster recovery plan in place and fewer than 10 percent of SMBs have crisis management, contingency, business recovery and business resumption plans."

"'SMBs need to evaluate their business processes and protect what is critical,' said Donna Scott, vice president and research director for Gartner. 'They must anticipate how they would conduct business in the event of natural disasters, system outages, facility fires, or other risks to their operations. Failure to do so is risky business. SMBs must act promptly to assess and mitigate the risks that stalk and endanger their business operations.'"

Source: "Gartner Says Most Small and Midsize Businesses Are Not Prepared for a Crisis," March 25, 2002

"According to survey results released by Gartner, Inc.'s Executive Programs (EXP) and the Society for Information Management (SIM), most companies are unprepared for terrorist attacks or natural disasters, and would be unable to quickly and smoothly execute basic business continuity measures."

"The Business Continuity Readiness Survey reports that the areas in which companies and government organizations are least prepared in are the same areas that are most likely to incur loss or damage in physical attacks. Only 13 percent of companies report that they are 'mostly' prepared for major loss of life; 28 percent report business continuity plans for addressing physical attacks; and 38 percent are prepared for loss of transportation infrastructure. Only 36 percent have a plan for complete loss of physical assets and workspace."

"If there is a power outage, 88 percent of firms are set to deal with it. Failures of a single server or host, application, software failures and network failures all have back-up plans according to more than 70 percent of the survey respondents."

"'Scenario planning is never a pleasant exercise,' said Chuck Tucker, Gartner EXP vice president and research director. 'However, CEOs owe it to their employees, their families and to shareholders to protect their most valuable assets -- their people -- and to ensure that business can continue even under the most extreme circumstances.'"

Source: Press Release - "Gartner Executive Programs and Society for Information Management Survey: Most Companies and Government Organizations Are Unprepared for Attacks or Natural Disasters," January 23, 2002.