Companies in the US have revealed that technological investment for business continuity purposes will consist largely of mobile applications, virtualisation and cloud computing, in 2010 according to a survey carried out recently by AT&T.
72% of IT executives questioned indicated that they woud be investing in new technology in 2010 including the following: virtulisation (24%), cloud computing (21%) and mobile applications (20%).
Yet the most revealing statistics show that 63% of executives claim that wireless network capabilities are part of their business continuity plans and 77% indicated that “employee use of mobile devices” plays a major/minor role in their business continuity plans.
This may be blindingly obvious, but many organisations in the UK are yet to implement robust business continuity plans which enable the vast majority of employees (who are able to) to work from any location in times of a business disruption.
In 2005 (the latest national statistics I can find at present) a mere 8% of the UK workforce were classed as regular teleworkers (able to perform their job role away from a traditional office). Now of course those statistics don’t show the capabilities that could be used in disruptive situations, but what it tells me is that even if the capability is there for a lot of people to telework, they aren’t regularly using/ testing their remote working systems and policies. So what will happen when the business disruption happens and no-one knows how to access their emails or business systems?
Technology is an enabler for business continuity, but it is only as good as the person using it. Employees need to be familiar with the technology if they are going to continue to be productive in the event of a disruption.
Really nice blog on cloud computing. Cloud Computing is the next generation computing technique being used these days. Most of the IT companies are using this technology. I myself have been searching about this. Thanks for the blog. I’ll keep visiting your website.