Symantec Releases SMB Disaster Preparedness Survey Results

Symantec Corp. tapped the services of research firm ReRez to make a survey through phone from February to March of the current year 2012. Speaking to 2,053 SMB organizations around the world, the research firm talked to IT representatives and senior and C-level management in order to find out whether their IT infrastructures are safe when disaster strikes.

According to the survey results, even small and medium scale businesses are taking advantage of cutting-edge technology. Some 35% of the survey respondents are currently using mobile technologies for their businesses while 34% are taking or planning to take advantage of server virtualization. 40% of the respondents are using public clouds while 43% are deploying private clouds.

Businesses are taking advantage of all the available technologies because there is a strong desire to be better prepared if disaster strikes. According to the survey, 37% of the respondents opt to tap private cloud computing because of disaster preparedness. Also, 34% of the respondents said that they got committed to server virtualization and public clouds because of disaster preparedness. 36% said that they opted for mobile technologies because of disaster preparedness also.

71% of the survey respondents believe that server virtualization improved their disaster preparedness while 43% also claimed that private clouds also improved their disaster preparedness.  On the other hand, 41% believe that public clouds also helped improve their disaster preparedness while 36% said that mobile technologies improved their disaster preparedness.

According to Symantec’s Steve Cullen, SMB and Cloud senior vice president of worldwide marketing, the rise in adoption of these new technologies among small and medium size businesses is primarily because such entities are especially exposed to disruptions. These companies must be able to recover quickly from a critical disaster. Mobile, cloud computing, and virtualization technologies when combined with data protection, comprehensive security, and a sound plan can empower SMBs to become better prepared once disasters like theft, fire, or floods strike.

It is important for these enterprises to have a clear plan and study various technologies like mobile, virtualization, and cloud in order to select most appropriate solution for their disaster preparedness requirements. An integrated backup for disaster recovery and offsite storage must be adopted as well as an automated P2V (physical to virtual) backup conversion which will come in handy should there be a server failure. These companies must also utilize a comprehensive backup and security solution in order to protect the mobile, virtual, or physical systems. Lastly, it is imperative for these SMBs to test and review their selected system’s effectiveness quarterly.