Symantec challenges SMBs on disaster readiness

Two-thirds of SMBs in the UK do not have a disaster recovery plan

Many small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are not adequately prepared to deal with natural or IT disasters, according to Symantec.

The enterprise security and storage vendor's most recent Disaster Preparedness Survey found that 66 per cent of SMBs in the UK do not have a formal disaster recovery plan.

The survey noted that UK SMBs experience an average of two IT service outages every year from events such as malware infections, network breaches and power outages.

Companies that do not have a plan in place risk losing significant amounts of business and suffering a serious loss of consumer confidence, warned the company.

"The startling part of this research is the fact that SMBs do not realise the impact that outages have on customers, particularly when they have tools at their fingertips to help them be prepared to deal with disasters," said Andrew Douglas, Symantec's EMEA vice president of small and medium business.

"Rather than continuing to be unprepared, small and mid-sized organisations can take simple steps to protect their data."

There was some good news in the report. Around 90 per cent of the companies that do not yet have a disaster plan said that they would adopt one within the next six months.