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The 2011 AT&T Business Continuity Study

AT&T has published the results of its annual survey into business continuity planning in the US. AT&T has conducted this study for ten consecutive years, surveying IT executives from companies in the United States with at least $25 million in annual revenue.

Encouragingly, this year’s study has revealed a trend towards greater emphasis on business continuity planning.

2011 AT&T Business Continuity Study key findings:

Evolutions in technology and recovering IT budgets have enabled businesses to investigate new means for maintaining critical operations in the face of natural or manmade disasters.

• Eight out of ten (80 percent) executives indicate that their companies will be investing in new technologies in 2011, up from 72 percent in 2010.
• A majority (54 percent) of organizations surveyed currently use or are considering using cloud services to augment their business continuity and disaster recovery strategies.
• Use of mobile devices plays a role in 78 percent of business continuity plans.
• Most companies (80 percent) have systems in place that enable employees to work from home or remote locations, representing an increase of 14 percentage points in the past four years.

The security implications of social networking remain a concern for IT executives, even as their companies begin to integrate these tools into their business strategies.

• Three out of four (79 percent) of executives expressed concerns about the increased usage of social networking capabilities.
• More than half (56 percent) of companies allow employees to access social networking tools such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube from the corporate network.
• Two-thirds (67 percent) of businesses use social media to communicate with customers and stakeholders or to monitor for relevant news and chatter.

Mobility and wireless capabilities carry weight in business continuity planning as well as day-to-day operations for many companies.

• Six out of ten (64 percent) organizations include wireless network capabilities as part of their business continuity plan.
• More than a third (38 percent) of companies plan to invest in mobile applications during 2011.
• Most companies (81 percent) allow employees to access work emails on their personal smartphones.
• Eight out of ten (82 percent) of executives are concerned about the potential impact of mobile device usage on security threats.

Study methodology

The 2011 AT&T Business Continuity Study is based on an online survey of 401 IT executives in four US metropolitan areas: Dallas/Fort Worth, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Washington, D.C. The study was conducted by e-Rewards Market Research with companies having total revenues of more than $25 million. Surveys were obtained between February 23 and March 17, 2011.

All survey respondents have primary responsibility for business continuity planning, representing 18 major industry areas in addition to local/state government. Sixty-nine percent (69 percent) represent companies with locations outside of the US.

More details of the 2011 survey (PDF)

Year on year comparisons (PDF)

•Date: 2nd June 2011 • Region: US •Type: Article • Topic: BC statistics

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