October 7, 2004 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- A national survey released on Tuesday revealed a considerable discrepancy between perception and reality concerning the disaster preparation of Fortune 1000 companies, according to C-suite executives. The study, commissioned by SunGard Availability Services (availability.sungard.com) and conducted by Harris Interactive (harrisinteractive.com), discovered potential deficiencies in companies' ability to access critical information when faced with power outages, natural disasters, hackers and computer viruses.
When the survey asked companies to evaluate their ability to access business-critical information promptly after a disaster, executives graded themselves an average of B. The results are slightly higher than last year's grade of C+, if not entirely accurate.
The survey concludes 38 percent of companies are not devoting the required financial resources to address disaster recovery. The Harris Interactive survey revealed that 22 percent of executives felt that their company did not meet regulatory requirements for business continuity, information security and/or electronic records retention.
In 2003, 67 percent of executives surveyed said their companies were more prepared to deal with a disaster than they were prior to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The 2004 study showed that 58 percent felt more prepared than they were prior to the August 2003 blackout.
