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28 March 2024

Banks top in recovery awareness

The banking sector is making investments in business continuity solutions as it is made mandatory by the government. (EB FILE)

Published
By Nancy Sudheer

Awareness levels on business continuity and disaster recovery solutions are highest in the banking sector in the UAE due to regulatory intervention, say experts.

Organisations in the UAE have low awareness levels in making investments towards business continuity solutions. Disaster recovery is a critical area in business continuity as it is directly related to data loss. The banking sector is alert and is making investments in this direction as it is made mandatory by the government.

"Banks are proactive in installing and implementing disaster recovery solutions as it's a regulatory issue. Even government departments consider business continuity an integral part of the business as they aggressive on the services front," said Yasser Zeineldin, Chief Executive Officer of IT service provider eHosting DataFort.

In spite of data growing at a massive scale in the country, data protection has not matured in other sectors. "Most organisations don't have a disaster recovery and business continuity solution in place. As no legislation is in place data is not backed up like in the banking sector. In fact, the Middle East is immature on this front. There are signs on more clients talking to us on installing disaster recovery, building up capabilities and business continuity," said Stephen O'Donnell, Chief Executive Officer at Qatar-based IT service company Meeza.

With the global recession, there was a slight cultural change in the region, said George Pawlyszyn, Executive Director (Strategy and Business Development) at Abu Dhabi-based Injazat Data Systems.

"We have noticed this change in organisations as IT departments are giving a consideration to disaster recovery. As a service provider, we are also helping these companies set security standards within IT frameworks," added Pawlyszyn.

Service providers in the UAE are providing business continuity solutions for some time but customers don't consider data secure with a third party provider. "There is a perception that data is not secure with a service provider and is better kept in-house. But they don't realise that service providers have a rigid control on security standards and are able to provide data with a correct cost benefit analysis," added Zeineldin.