HOW SAFE IS YOUR BUSINESS DATA? A QUIZ...
in the wild
The business information stored on computer systems is the lifes’ blood of the modern organization. Losing a little means discomfort and weakness. Losing too much is death. When a catastrophic failure hits a company’s data, the costs begin mounting immediately. To assess your risk, take the following quiz to understand how vulnerable to data loss your company may be.

1. Data is the lifeblood of your business. Do you know how much it is worth?
Yes (One point)
I have a pretty good idea (Three points)
No (Five points)

Data disaster strikes two out of 1,000 company data centers each year with 43% of those companies closing immediately, and another 29% gone within two years.

2. Downtime costs businesses big time. Do you know how much downtime you can afford before you are up and running again when a disaster strikes a critical computer system or process?

Weeks (One point)
Days (Three points)
Hours (Five points)

A recent study says on average organizations will need to reduce the time it takes to recover critical processes and application systems to a maximum of 24 hours by 2003. Non-critical systems, they add, will need to be back up in four days.

3. Is your business dependent on processing data on a 7/24 basis?

No (One point)
Occasionally (Three points)
Yes (Five points)

When a company suffers a computer outage longer than 10 days, there is a fifty-per cent chance it will no longer exist in five years. Most that do survive never fully recover.

4. How many users on average does each of your servers support?

One to 10 users (One point)
10 to 100 users (Three points)
100 or more users (Five points)

The internal damage caused by even a minor data loss can reverberate throughout the company.

5. Over the past year, how has unscheduled downtime of a critical system or process impacted your business?

No significant impact (One point)
Minimal impact (Three points)
Measurable impact (Five points)

Even the tightest security may not be able to prevent news of a data disaster spreading outside the organization. Customers, accustomed to just-in-time service and instant access to information, may find other vendors whom they perceive as more reliable.

6. Is physical access to your data center or server(s) always being monitored?

Yes (One point)
Most of the time (Three points)
Not at all (Five points)

Human error accounts for over 34% of business interruptions in the past five years.

7. Does your network have the proper safeguards in place to protect it from unwanted intrusion?

Yes, I have the appropriate security for the level of risk involved. (One point)
I have some security but I’m not sure if it is adequate (Three points)
My network security has not been reviewed for 12 months or more (Five points)

Environmental incidents account for over 10% of business interruptions in the past five years.

8. How many times have you had to rely upon alternate power sources to complete an emergency backup process?

Rarely, if ever (One point)
Infrequently (Three points)
Often (Five points)

Power problems account for over 29% of computer outages.

9. If your computer system went down early on the weekend, do you have a written plan available to the right employees ensuring the appropriate actions are taken immediately?

Yes (One point)
Yes but not a written plan (Three points)
No (Five points)

Fortune 1000 companies experience an average of 1.6 hours of LAN downtime per week.

10. How current is your disaster recovery plan?

Six months or less (One point)
More than six months since review (Three points)
Don’t have one (Five points)

To Calculate Your Score Please Click On The Results button below

When a catastrophic failure hits a company’s data, the costs begin mounting immediately. Employees who should be busy are idle while the work piles up. Products aren’t shipped, payments aren’t processed and salespeople dealing with customers are suddenly tongue-tied and stuck for answers.

Take our DataReader quiz and find out how safe YOUR business data is. Catastrophic data failures don't just ruin your day — they can ruin your business, your livelihood and your mood...

Even the tightest security may not be able to prevent news of a data disaster spreading outside the organization. Customers, accustomed to just-in-time service and instant access to information, may find other vendors whom they perceive as more reliable.
www.cbltech.com Winter 2002DR