There is a lack of understanding over the value of disaster recovery in business, it has been suggested.

This is shown in executive views on funding levels, according to a new State of Disaster Recovery survey commissioned by SunGard Availability Services and carried out by Harris Interactive.

IT executives were more likely than business decision makers to claim insufficient funding is one of the biggest barriers they face in developing an effective disaster recovery plan, the poll revealed.

The survey also showed that 25 per cent of IT decision makers claim they have insufficient resources to make disaster recovery plans effective, compared to 11 per cent of business executives.

"Disasters can impact operational and financial performance, regulatory compliance, and relations with customers and partners. Information availability should be viewed as preventative care," stated Patrick Doherty, executive vice-president and chief marketing officer at SunGard Availability Services.

A StollzNow Research survey for Kroll Ontrack recently revealed that 48 per cent of firms had not reviewed their disaster recovery plans in the last 12 months.

New research from Connect found that, on average, it takes businesses that use backup tapes take 11.6 hours to retrieve and restore files. Connect is now recommending that SMEs switch to online backup.