[May 18, 2012] Symantec Survey: SMBs are Adopting Virtualization, Cloud and Mobility for Improved Disaster Preparedness Tweet May 18, 2012 (Close-Up Media via COMTEX) -- Symantec Corp. announced the findings of its 2012 SMB Disaster Preparedness Survey, which discovered that disaster preparedness is closely connected with small and medium sized businesses' (SMBs) adoption of technologies like virtualization, cloud computing, and mobility. According to a release, the survey also revealed how willing SMBs are in adopting these technologies, often with improved disaster preparedness as a goal, and how the move is paying off for them. "Today's SMBs are in a unique position to embrace new technologies that not only provide a competitive edge, but also allow them to improve their ability to recover from a disaster while protecting the information that their businesses depend on," said Steve Cullen, SVP of worldwide marketing for SMB and .Cloud at Symantec Corp. "SMBs cannot afford lengthy downtimes so the ability to quickly recover from a disaster is critical. Technologies such as virtualization, cloud computing, and mobility, combined with a sound plan and comprehensive security and data protection solutions, enable SMBs to better prepare for and quickly recover from potential disasters such as floods or fires, as well as lost or stolen mobile devices and laptops." The survey shows the importance of embracing innovation to better respond to challenges. In order for businesses to best take advantage of this opportunity to improve disaster preparedness, Symantec recommends taking the following actions: Start planning now: Develop a disaster preparedness plan today. Evaluate how strategic technologies such as mobile, virtualization and cloud can help in those efforts. Implement strategic technologies: Adopt integrated cloud backup for offsite storage and disaster recovery, and automated physical to virtual (P2V) backup conversion so you can recover your physical system to a virtual machine in case of a server failure. Protect your information: Use security and backup solutions to protect your physical, virtual and mobile systems. You may even opt to backup to the cloud. Review and test your disaster preparedness: This should be completed at least once a quarter. Symantec's 2012 SMB Disaster Preparedness Survey Research firm ReRez fielded this survey by telephone in February and March of 2012. They spoke with decision-makers at 2,053 organizations worldwide, each with between 5 and 250 employees. Of the survey respondents, two-thirds were C-level and senior management; the others were IT representatives. Slightly more than one-third (35 percent) are taking advantage of mobility. More Information: www.symantec.com ((Comments on this story may be sent to [email protected])) [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]