For most businesses, data recovery will be a key part of continuity of operations planning. However, one way to save time and resources with these processes is to understand which data sets are mostly commonly requested for restoration. According to Kroll Ontrack's recent survey of its customers, email won out by a landslide.

The firm reported that email topped the list most frequent data restoration requests among 61 percent of its customers, with up to five email-related requests a month. About 11 percent claims 10 or more requests a month.

Email was most common across North America, EMEA and APAC Kroll Ontrack customers, but the numbers began to divide as you move down the list. In Europe, the second most common data request for recovery was specific to disaster recovery at 16 percent, while missing data came in at 12 percent. In the United States, ediscovery requests were the second most common restoration request at 21 percent, followed by data consolidate from legacy hardware to new systems, such as when deploying cloud solutions, at 15 percent.

While disaster recovery may seem like the most common cause of a data restoration request, oftentimes it was simply accidental deletion. According to the survey, 45 percent of employee requests were due to accidental deletion of an email, though internal investigations accounted for about 17 percent.

Regardless of the cause, data recovery and restoration is an integral part of business continuity efforts. Companies need to ensure their systems and IT staff are prepared for such requests and able to fulfill them quickly and efficiently. This could mean additional training or an IT infrastructure upgrade. An independent assessment of disaster impact can help assess the most efficient way to enhance operations around these expectations.