Banking Industry Leads on Physical Security

Global Switch has released results of a survey across the European banking industry on attitudes towards business continuity. Of all industries, banking is most likely to place the highest importance on the physical security of IT infrastructure.

The study shows that 97 percent of banks polled during the research stated that they were confident their mission-critical IT infrastructure was housed in a resilient, fit-for-purpose environment. Other industries were less sure, with retailers coming in at 84 percent and other commercial organizations at 79 percent.

In addition, 93 percent of banks allocate a specific part of their budget to prepare and maintain the physical environment in which their IT infrastructure is located, compared with only 68 percent of retailers.

A key factor in the banking industry’s attitude can be linked to the consideration of regulations such as Basel II and Sarbanes-Oxley when assessing the resilience and security of IT infrastructure. Of those polled, nearly 70 percent of banks admitted that this was a significant consideration compared to only 40 percent of retail operations and just over 50 percent of other commercial organizations.

Auditors and key stakeholders were cited as another reason many banks are keen to make sure their IT systems suffer minimal disruption, with 91 percent agreeing that interruptions would be of major concern to these groups and another factor for ensuring IT infrastructure is housed in a purpose-built facility.

Julian King, commercial director of Global Switch concludes: “The banking world is setting the standard for other industries by ensuring that their mission-critical IT infrastructure is located in a fit-for-purpose environment. It’s vital that other industries take note of this as part of a comprehensive business continuity strategy by seeing that their IT is housed in purpose-built facilities that provide flexible, resilient, cost-effective and secure environments.”