AT&T: Economy not slowing disaster planning

U.S. businesses aren’t using a tougher economy as an excuse to slow investments in business continuity planning, according to the eighth in a series of annual surveys by AT&T, but they are looking for more network-based solutions and incorporating wireless technology into their planning in higher numbers.

The 2009 AT&T Business Continuity Study surveyed U.S. IT executives from companies that have at least $25 million in annual revenue. Two-thirds of respondents have international locations.

While two-thirds of those surveyed said they would be investing in new technologies this year, only about one-quarter said their spending would be higher this year than last.

“One thing that stood out for me was that, despite changes in the economy, most of the customers are still making significant investment in IT to serve business continuity needs,” said Chris Costello, AVP product management, AT&T Managed Hosting & Application Management Services. “I think the service provider model can offer them a more predictable monthly recurring fee, so we are seeing a shift from the capex to the opex model.”

Where businesses choose to deploy and manage their own equipment, they may find themselves hit with unexpectedly high bills when that equipment hits the end of its life cycle, Costello said. “This is not a time to present a $1 million purchase order,” she commented. AT&T has seen more companies flock to its offer of on-demand hosted utility computing, for example, Costello said.

About one-third of those surveyed had actually invoked their plans, and many of those were based in parts of Florida or Houston, where bad weather caused serious problems. “We tell people they should be practicing their plans once a year, if not four times a year,” Costello said. “We do find that customers are mostly likely to invoke their plans due to bad weather.”

This year’s N1H1 virus also has been an eye-opener for companies who previously pooh-poohed the need for plans to enable employees to work remotely, Costello said. Mobile workforce planning is now a more routine part of the continuity planning practice, she said.

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