Hardware failure top threat to business continuity

Sungard Availability Services' new report on the top causes of business disruptions found last year's widespread flooding was also a major problem.

However, hardware failure was still the biggest threat resulting in 35 per cent of invocations of customers' disaster recovery (DR) plans, down from 45 per cent in 2006.

Power-related disruptions accounted for 22 per cent of DR plans, while flooding was third on the list with 12 per cent, rising from six per cent last year.

Executive vice-president for UK and Europe at Sungard Keith Tilley said the outcome of the report with hardware failure being the most serious threat for two years in a row, showed that company directors were still not doing enough to protect "an organisation's most critical information".

Russell Price, Continuity Forum chairman, agreed saying that the chief executive of the board is responsible for getting "business continuity effectively embedded in the organisation."