Tech and Biz Execs at Odds over Disaster Preparedness

A recent RoperASW poll, sponsored by EMC, found wide gaps in data-vulnerability perceptions and disaster-recovery readiness by leaders of major U.S. companies.

The study, which surveyed 274 business and technology leaders at major U.S. corporations, found that only 14 percent of business leaders felt their important business information is very vulnerable. In contrast, 52 percent of IT executives, at the same size companies, felt their data was vulnerable to a disaster.

The survey uncovered other discrepancies as well having to do with how long it would take to resume normal business operations if a disaster did strike. Once again, the business executives felt more comfortable. Only 9 percent of business executives say they would need more than three days to resume, while 23 percent of technology executives say recovery operations would stretch from three days to more than a week. The survey points out that, "The gap is stark when compared to pending regulatory efforts that would require companies to disclose their disaster readiness and the impact that such an outage would have on business and customer confidence."