Whichever medium it is delivered through, disaster recovery and online data backup have been highlighted as indispensable in a new survey.

According to Research and Markets in A Slice of SaaS Data: Technology Capabilities Confirm SaaS' Enterprise Positioning, which was released this week, important applications for users and buyers in IT are consistent in nature whether delivered via software-as-a-service (SaaS) or traditional methods.

The organisation claimed that chief information officers believe the availability of disaster recovery and online data backup is important whether it is hosted in-house or with an internet services provider.

It follows a stringent interviewing process with 1,700 respondents, who gave their opinions to Research and Markets in the study which is now available to download through the company website.

Research and Markets owns thousands of independent surveys and aims to provide intelligence to organisations from niche topics to major industry issues, with a number of high-end companies working with them including Hitachi, Accenture, Daimler Chrysler, Fox and Hewlett-Packard.

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.