Quorum: Weekly Testing Critical To Recovery Of Data, Applications And Systems In Event Of Disaster

Hardware, Software Changes and Other Problems That Could Be Found With Regular Testing Top List of Common Pitfalls That Block Business Continuity

SAN JOSE, Calif. – Quorum®, the leading provider of one-click backup, recovery and continuity for small to mid-sized businesses, today revealed a new report that focuses on disaster recovery testing as a critical piece of overall business continuity. In "Always Be Testing: Making the Case for ABT," Quorum advises regular, weekly testing as the only way to identify changes, inconsistencies and problems in an organization's environment that could derail the recovery of data, applications and systems.

Despite the well-documented travails of small to mid-sized businesses that have endured the financial ruin caused by system downtime, many organizations still don't take the necessary steps to ensure complete recovery — which includes regular weekly system testing. In fact, a recent survey found that only 28 percent of small to mid-sized businesses have ever even tested their backup. For example, FTP, Inc., an East Coast-based general insurance agency, tested its Symantec BackupExec disaster recovery system only infrequently. "We rarely performed testing because [testing with BackupExec] was such a cumbersome, time-consuming process," said P.J. Powell, vice president at FTP.

But changes in a small to mid-sized business's environment that would be revealed with weekly, networkwide testing could inhibit the recovery of not only data but also applications and systems should disaster strike. Indeed, storage is added, security patches are installed, applications are modified or removed — all these infrastructure adjustments can spell trouble if they are not addressed and DR-tested before disaster strikes. Backup corruption and human error add to the snags that are revealed with weekly testing, and can include tape corruption and incorrect setup of backups.

Unfortunately, as mentioned earlier, small to mid-sized businesses using tape and disk backup or cloud backup alone complain of the cost, time and complexities associated with regular testing. If these organizations do test, chances are they resort to "workarounds," in which they perform a scaled-down version of a test in a partial environment or a partial format. They do not test all data, on all servers, involve all hardware and components, and account for all changes in the environment. Given weekly testing using a traditional solution is time- and cost-prohibitive, the report suggests looking into a solution that enables on-demand and automatic testing, which can make weekly testing painless and ensure a small to mid-sized business can recover all its data, applications and systems after a disaster. FTP's Powell, for one, decided it made more sense to standardize on Quorum's one-click backup, recovery and continuity solution and take advantage of its on-demand and automatic testing capabilities.

"Because of the daily changes that occur in any company's environment, conducting business without the safety net of weekly disaster recovery tests is a foolhardy risk today's small to mid-sized businesses simply can't afford to take," said Larry Lang, CEO, Quorum. "With our 'Always Be Testing' call to action, we challenge these organizations to incorporate regular testing into their business continuity plan to ensure a disaster won't force their doors to close."

About Quorum

Quorum® provides assured, one-click backup, recovery and continuity, helping businesses safeguard their revenue, customers and reputation. The award-winning Quorum series of appliance and hybrid cloud solutions makes continuity a reality for small to mid-sized companies, letting them recover from any type of disaster within minutes. Most importantly, Quorum is simple and cost-effective. If your company avoids just 30 minutes of downtime, the Quorum solution pays for itself. The company is headquartered in San Jose, Calif. To learn more, please follow us on Twitter@quorumlabs, check out our Facebook page or visit www.quorum.net

Quorum, One-Click Recovery and the Quorum logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Quorum, Inc. in the United States and other countries.