Companies have misplaced confidence in backup solutions

Many companies have a false sense of security when it comes to their backup measures, according to a new study.

Databarracks, which carried out its annual Backup and Recovery survey, found that although 91 percent of its respondents felt satisfied with their backup solution, 74 percent of those who did not use encryption or replication, or take backups off-site, were unworried.

Additionally, 67 percent didn't check or maintain backup logs or test the restore facility – but they stayed confident nonetheless.

In the report, Peter Groucutt, managing director of Databarracks, warns that there is a knowledge gap despite companies now realizing the importance of having continuity and disaster recovery plans in place.

He said: “These days it is not enough to blindly trust that backups are being completed properly. Businesses and the regulatory environment in which we all exist demand fast and reliable recovery time objectives for IT systems. Such is the pace at which a modern company transacts business these days that those who are without their IT for any length of time are losing serious money.

“Customers are also becoming a lot more aware of the information that companies hold and are getting less and less forgiving about delivery disruption, let alone the thought of their sensitive data being transported in an unencrypted and readable format.”