2008 AT&T Business Continuity Study

Despite the reality of man-made and natural disasters, many businesses are not prepared to maintain business operations in the event of an emergency, according to an annual AT&T study on business continuity and disaster recovery preparedness for U.S. businesses.

Now in its seventh year, the AT&T Business Continuity Study found that one in five businesses does not have a business continuity plan in place. And for the third year in a row, the survey finds that nearly 30 percent of U.S. businesses don't consider business continuity planning a priority.

We talked to IT executives from companies throughout the United States that have at least $25 million in annual revenue to get their views, and this is what we've learned:

Two-thirds of IT executives predict that hacking will be the biggest threat in the next five years. The next most frequently mentioned threats are internal:

Accidents — 56 percent
Sabotage — 47 percent
Remote workers — 44 percent

Six out of 10 companies have made some type of business change in the past year, but only 28 percent updated their plans.
One-fourth (28 percent) have insufficient storage space.
The vast majority (79 percent) have special arrangements for communicating with key executives during a natural disaster.

We offer a wide array of business continuity services, encompassing disaster planning, risk management, recovery preparedness and communications readiness. AT&T Business Continuity Services are comprehensive, providing enterprises with business-impact analysis, risk assessments, a full continuum of storage solutions, high-availability network solutions and network and IT security solutions. And we're practicing what we preach: We execute Network Disaster Recovery (NDR) exercises several times a year.

Throughout the past 10 years, AT&T has invested more than $500 million in its NDR program, which includes specially trained managers, engineers and technicians from across the United States, as well as a fleet of more than 150 self-contained equipment trailers and support vehicles that house the same equipment and components as an AT&T data-routing or voice-switching center.