by: David Finn, Health IT Officer, Symantec

At HIMSS’ annual conference this year, Symantec sponsored a survey to find out what the forecast is like for the healthcare IT industry. The consensus: cloudy.

In general, the survey showed healthcare providers are beginning to see some of the needs and problems with their current situations.

Of the 568 healthcare professionals who responded to the survey, 55 percent said disaster recovery keeps them up at night. This is understandable since a healthcare system is subject to HIPAA and other legal and regulatory requirements as well as having to support complex infrastructures. What makes the situation worse is that many providers don’t have a solid plan. Of the systems most likely to have full-proof disaster recovery plans, only 31 percent do.

Eighty percent of respondents reported archiving more than one copy of their images, but best practices are...