eHosting DataFort Reveals Results of Third Middle East Business Continuity Management Survey

•    Investments in Disaster Recovery and BCM Range from US$100,000 to US$1 Million
•    Applications and Network Infrastructure Failure, Power Outage and Human Error Top Three Causes of Disruption 

Dubai-UAE: 14 October, 2014 – eHosting DataFort (eHDF), the region’s leading managed hosting and cloud infrastructure services provider, revealed the results of the third Middle East Business Continuity Management Survey across the Middle East. 

Conducted in partnership with Continuity and Resilience (CORE), the Business Continuity Institute (BCI) and DNV GL Business Assurance, the survey will help raise the visibility of IT disaster recovery (IT DR) and business continuity management (BCM) preparedness among corporates and organizations in the Middle East.

The 2014 survey reveals that 26% of the respondents do not have a dedicated BCM team as compared to 2012 where nearly 63% of the respondents confirmed their organizations did not have a dedicated IT Disaster Recovery or BCM team, and that Business Continuity Management was being driven by Information Security Unit, Quality Management, IT and Operational and Overall Risk teams. 

This demonstrates an increased focus on BCM investments. However, in terms of maturity of BCM and IT DR readiness, there is still a long way to go as 56% of respondents rated their organization’s IT DR readiness as average or below average and 64% of the respondents rated their BCM readiness as average or below average.  

There are other statistics indicating that a shift is already underway in the way corporations look at BCM. The survey reflects that 27% of the respondents invest anywhere between US$100,000 to US$250,000 to implement and sustain their BCM program, 22% invest between US$250,000 to US$1 million and large organizations in the banking, oil and gas, telecoms, government and e-commerce sectors accounted for 11 per cent to have set aside BCM budgets of more than US$1 million. 

Lack of a robust business continuity plan can result in financial loss that may have a negative impact on bottom line profits of an organization. 30% of the respondents who have indicated the financial impact of disruptions as per their Business Impact Analysis (BIA) estimate that a two-day disruption could set the organization back by US$3 million and more. 

66% of the respondents reported at least one significant business disruption in the last year and the top three causes for disruptions in the Middle East have been identified as applications and network infrastructure failure, power outage and human error. Businesses today are vulnerable to diverse natural or man-made disasters such as fire, earthquakes, cyclones, cyber threats, as well as network and power failures. Implementation of robust BCM planning can help enterprises effectively respond to challenges without defaulting on commitments towards retaining the trust, faith and confidence of key customers and stakeholders. 

Yasser Zeineldin, CEO of eHosting DataFort, said, “The results are indicative of how the industry and business environment is evolving. Everything is driven by technology and it is imperative that organizations look closely at what is ‘crucial data’ and how it can be safeguarded in the instance of downtime caused either by a natural disaster or simply because of an IT outage.” 

“eHDF has been at the forefront of stressing on the importance of Disaster Recovery and BCM, and this year’s survey shows that our efforts have reaped dividends. The increase in the number of organizations, both large corporations and SMEs, investing in disaster recovery and making contingency plans by adopting business continuity management programs look encouraging. We have seen a significant uptake for Disaster recovery services and have implemented high end DR projects for a number of organisations over the last year.”   

The results from the survey show that 47% of BCM budgets in the region are being spent on IT disaster recovery infrastructure, seats, software and licensing. This can be further reduced by working with specialized service providers who can implement IT disaster recovery at a fraction of the cost of doing it in-house. In fact, 30% of the survey respondents have indicated that they plan to outsource the enhancement of IT DR plans to specialist external service providers. 

Dhiraj Lal, Executive Director Continuity and Resilience, said, “Driven largely by the UAE BCM Standard AE/HSC/NCEMA7000, we at Continuity and Resilience are seeing an increased demand for BCM and IT DR Consulting and Training services. I am delighted to see how the Middle East in general and the UAE in particular has recognised that BCM helps organisations protect their reputation, revenues, profitability and market share. By embracing BCM, the Middle East will be seen as a region that the world can rely upon. In partnership with eHDF, we have been able to drive home the message of prioritizing the adoption of business continuity management, and are seeing a higher overall awareness towards the importance of BCM.” 

The benefits of BCM were also endorsed by Lyndon Bird, Technical Director at the BCI, who said, “The Business Continuity Institute’s annual Horizon Scan survey showed just how seriously BC professionals take cyber threats and it is encouraging to see that the importance of Business Continuity is now being recognized at the Board level. Organizations are beginning to realise the value of having an effective business continuity management programme and the return on investment it can provide.” 

eHDF and Continuity and Resilience had released the first such survey in 2009, seeking to analyze DR and BCM trends and raise BCM awareness for organizations in the Middle East. 

In addition to the threats of business disruption and losses, organizations in the UAE are being driven towards BCM implementation due to the official certification and standardization that enhances the organization’s value in the industry. These include the UAE BCM Standard AE/HSC/7000 and the global compliance to ISO22301, the world’s first global standard in Business Continuity Management.

With world-class data centres, resilient and scalable infrastructure and round-the-clock managed operations, eHosting DataFort has established itself as a market leader in the field of managed hosting, Disaster Recovery and cloud infrastructure services. For more information, please visit www.ehdf.com. 
For more information on Continuity and Resilience, please visit: www.continuityandresilience.com.