Just over half (52 per cent) of businesses have reassessed their disaster recovery plans over the last 12 months, research has shown.

A survey by StollzNow Research for Kroll Ontrack revealed that 41 per cent of respondents claimed to have tested restored data from a backup system at least once every month.

Meanwhile, 24 per cent of respondents admitted that their organisation did not have a formal policy for erasing sensitive data, with only 34 per cent saying their firm had used an external consultant for data recovery.

"New technologies, such as virtualisation and client solutions like Citrix, have changed the way data is recovered," explained Adrian Briscoe, general manager at Ontrack Data Recovery APAC, a division of Kroll Ontrack.

He also asserted that data backups do not always work.

"It's essential to test, maintain and update these systems," Mr Briscoe added.

The recent 2009 Disaster Recovery & Business Continuity Survey carried out by Agility Recovery Solutions and Hughes Marketing Group, found that 90 per cent of small and medium-sized businesses spent one day or less maintaining data recovery tools.

A recent survey for Connect found that one in ten companies has lost important data as a result of a backup failure. The company has now developed a unique online backup service for SMEs to ensure they can survive any disaster.