Over 50% of UK teachers suffered from data loss in 2009

February 17, 2010

Over half of teachers are not protected by an adequate backup and recovery strategy. As a result a staggering 55% of teachers and 23% of headteachers suffered from data loss last year alone.

The findings stem from a survey of IT professionals in the education sector who stated that over 80% of teachers, lecturers and staff are encouraged to back up all their information to the servers at their school or college. However, this is evidently not being put into practice when one considers just how many teachers and headteachers have suffered from data loss.

According to analyst findings, up to 60% of corporate data is contained on the PCs and laptops in an organisation, not servers. As a result educational institutions are effectively sitting on data loss time bomb that puts everything from pupils coursework, teacher’s lesson plans and school records at risk because they do not have a full data backup and recovery policy in place which safeguards both workstations and servers.

David Blackman, general manager of Acronis Northern Europe, said: “Backing up teacher’s information is vital to educational establishments. If this data were to be lost or be damaged, this could lead to detrimental consequences including lost student information and significant disruption due to system downtime. Teachers need to ensure they have an adequate backup and recovery plan to protect their digital assets, on and offsite.”

The survey also highlighted that 68% of teachers and headteachers take their laptops home to work from them offsite. Therefore, even if teachers and headteachers are protected by a backup solution at their site of work, they might still be putting their digital assets at risk in their own home. Accidental damage, theft, virus attacks or even spilling a drink over a laptop are all very real threats, which could ultimately put lists of pupils, school reports and alike at risk.

Acronis offers Acronis Backup & Recovery 10, a portfolio of solutions which provide easy to use and reliable backup and, more importantly, fast and simple recovery for both workstations and servers.

This survey was taken from a sample of 93 UK IT professionals in the education sector in January 2010.