Most data center operators got through last year's Hurricane Sandy unscathed, but big events like that are not the main threat to data center continuity. The folks at the Disaster Recovery Preparedness Council recently shared some data with us: 72% of participants in a new global survey they conducted admit they are failing in terms of disaster readiness.
More than one-third, 36%, lost critical apps, VMs, critical data files for hours; and 11% of the companies even lost these for days. The cost of losing critical applications has been estimated by various experts at $5,000 per minute. The reasons for these failures? Not natural or man made disasters, but run-of-the-mill, but frequent software or network failures, followed by human error. To make matters worse, when companies test their DR plans, 70% do not pass their own tests. To stay on top of all the trends, subscribe to Database Trends and Applications magazine.