Symantec released its annual Disaster Recovery survey today and the global results are in. Here are a few interesting survey results that caught my eye:

* In the past year, one-third of organizations surveyed had to execute their disaster recovery plans due to a variety of factors, such as hardware and software failure, external security threats, natural disasters, etc.

* Virtualization is the major factor that is causing more than half (55 percent) of respondents globally - 64 percent in North America - to reevaluate their Disaster Recovery plans.

* Respondents reported that 35 percent of their virtual servers are not currently covered in organizations' DR plans, and only 37 percent

of respondents reported that they back up all of their virtual systems.

Independent market research firm Applied Research West conducted the study of more than 1,000 IT managers across 15 countries to gain insight and understanding into some of the more complicated factors associated with disaster recovery. To learn more about the results, check out the press release.

Katie Beck

Aug. 28, 2008