IT managers fear life without email

Keeping email systems up and running is one of the biggest headaches facing IT managers, according to a recent survey.

One in three respondents said that aggressive reactions by users meant that a week without email is more stressful than getting married or divorced, moving house or suffering a minor car accident for IT managers struggling to get the system working again.

Over a quarter of IT managers said that users become irate immediately or within a minute or two of the company email system going down. Some 70 per cent claimed that users were on the warpath after half an hour.

The survey of 850 IT managers was conducted by independent researcher Dynamic Markets, and commissioned by vendor Veritas.

And while three-quarters of respondents admitted that their jobs could be on the line if the company email became unavailable, almost 40 per cent said that they were unsure how long it would take to restore their email systems.

"I think that's an astounding admission of uncertainty in how they manage their systems," said Chris Boorman, vice president of marketing at Veritas.

"Ensuring a continuous delivery of service is very important. The stress associated with email downtime and non-availability of systems is not to be underestimated."

The study also highlighted the growing importance of email as a mission critical tool, especially in legal matters.

Matthew Harris, an IP dispute resolution partner at law firm Norton Rose, said: "Businesses must recognise the importance of ensuring that records are kept for all contractually binding communications.

"Email is no different from any other form of communication in this respect."

One in 10 respondents to the survey indicated that email and attachments had already been used as legal evidence for or against their company.