eHosting DataFort and BCM Institute conduct survey

Over 75 organizations in the Middle East from sectors including banking and finance, services, retail, media and entertainment, utilities, oil and gas, manufacturing and IT have been identified to participate in the survey.

The survey will shed light on the trends in Business Continuity Management (BCM) and Disaster Recovery (DR) and determine how well-prepared corporates are to respond to disasters that may cause disruptions to day-to-day business operations. Organizations today are vulnerable to diverse natural or man-made disasters such as fire, earthquakes, cyclones, cyber threats, network and power failures.

Implementation of robust BCM planning can help organizations effectively respond to such situations without defaulting on commitments - thereby retaining the trust, faith and confidence of key customers and stakeholders.

Yasser Zeineldin, CEO, eHosting DataFort, said:

"Experience indicates that a strikingly large number of businesses, even multinationals, are not adequately prepared to survive major disasters. The internet outage caused by the undersea cable cut recently resulted in weeks of downtime for businesses in the region. Even minor incidents not managed properly have often snowballed into major disasters - leading to loss of current and future business and overall profitability, negative publicity and eventually closure of operations. A case in point being cyclone Gonu that swept over the Arabian Sea in 2007 and is said to have caused damage to the extent of $4bn."

"Organizations in the region need to assess critical threats that they are exposed to. The results from the survey will allow us to gauge the maturity levels of BCM prevalent within organizations across the Middle East, thereby allowing them to benchmark against global trends and standards."

Dhiraj Lal, Country Manager, Business Continuity Institute said: "Increasingly more organizations in the Middle East are adopting world-class governance and operational best practices. In today's competitive scenario, an interruption in critical services is almost certain to cause an impact on customer loyalty, market share, revenues, profitability and reputation.
"Business Continuity is now a key parameter that helps assess the commitment, foresight and responsibility of corporate management. The purpose of this survey is to collate best practices dealing with BCM readiness across the region, for the common benefit of the business community."

With a team dedicated to Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Planning supported by world-class data centres, resilient and scalable infrastructure, eHosting DataFort has established itself as a market leader in the field of managed and advisory services, with a wide network of technology and channel partners within the GCC/MENA regions, Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific.