New analysis shows that office-related problems, such as power and communications failures, are now the top sources of business disruption in the UK, over and above technology problems.
New analysis shows that office-related problems, including power and communications failures, have become the leading causes of business disruption in the UK - overtaking traditional technology-related issues. This shift highlights a growing risk for organisations that still rely heavily on physical office locations to host and access critical IT infrastructure.
With the biggest cause of disruption being power outage, it would seem that having a reliance on office locations for business IT infrastructure is inherently risky, unless of course you have the resources to pay for the power resilience provided by expensive generators or dual power feeds.
Importantly, major disasters are not the only cause of reduced productivity. Even short-term or localised events can have a widespread impact. A survey of FTSE100 companies found that during the snow disruption that affected the UK, 73 per cent of businesses experienced staff shortages. Despite this, only 39 per cent had the capability for employees to work remotely. This lack of flexibility left many organisations unable to operate effectively, even though their core systems may have remained technically available.
Enabling employees to work remotely offers benefits beyond resilience alone. According to a Citrix-sponsored survey conducted by the Telework Research Network, allowing staff to work from home can increase productivity by up to 20 per cent, while also reducing absenteeism and lowering real estate costs. For IT teams, this demonstrates that resilience-focused initiatives can also deliver clear commercial and operational value to the wider business.
Ultimately, business continuity is no longer just about recovering from catastrophic events. It is about ensuring the organisation can continue to operate through everyday disruption. Cloud-based infrastructure and recovery solutions provide the flexibility, resilience, and assurance needed to support the business, whatever the circumstances.
