Channel Customers Are Ripe for Disaster Exposure

A clear majority of IT professionals say that even when their customers have a disaster-recovery plan, they may not be sufficiently prepared for an outage, according to a recent survey from BUMI, a managed service provider specializing in backup and recovery. As a result, it's taking far too long to restore data after an incident, the study shows. Too many consultants fail to check for client backup errors daily, with a stunningly high percentage checking just once a month—or even once a year. This amounts to the potential for excessive bottlenecks that could cripple customer productivity. The study points to "a lack of urgency to ensure that backup errors either do not occur or get corrected quickly," Jennifer Walzer, CEO of BUMI, said in a statement. "Additionally, these findings underscore the need for IT consultants, channel partners and their respective clients to work with a trusted partner to ensure data backup and recovery procedures are managed proactively and continuously." An estimated 100 independent IT professionals—including managed services providers, VARs and other channel consultants—took part in the study.