Disaster Recovery Plan…Why?
For every business, success is earned and built through careful planning and smart decision making. It’s only natural that you’d want to safeguard your business from danger as you plan for your future. In today’s always-on, digital world, one of the most critical factors to business success is data, and studies show time after time that data loss can be the demise of a business. The costs and risks associated with downtime are substantial, and the damage to your business’ brand and reputation are immeasurable.
While there’s no way to predict the future, Murphy’s Law tells us anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. If you don’t have a well-thought out recovery plan, your company’s data is teetering on the edge of a cliff without a safety net. Here are some scenarios where a fully-managed Disaster Recovery Plan could save your business:
User Error
We all make mistakes, like accidentally clicking a malicious link, dropping our computers, misplacing a mobile device, or deleting something we intended to save. User error was cited as the leading cause of data loss in a 2015 Databarracks survey.
Hardware Failure
Hard drives, servers, computers, and other devices have varying life expectancies and refresh cycles, but hardware often fails. Whether it’s due to normal wear and tear, defects, or the unexplainable – businesses need to be prepared for the worst.
File Corruption & Software Failure
Software will also occasionally fail. Files and data can become corrupted and things may be deleted without warning. In addition to providing complete restores for entire machines, Disaster Recovery Solutions allow for data recovery.
Natural Disasters and Extreme Weather
Small businesses lose an average of $3,000 per day after closing due to a major weather event. It’s impossible to predict when such an event will strike and the resulting power outages, flooding, and other issues they will create.
Insider Threats
If a disgruntled employee were to intentionally encrypt, delete, steal, or corrupt sensitive information; having your data backed up ensures that it can be recovered and restored to help mitigate damage to your business.
Cybercrime
Viruses, malware and cybercrime (especially ransomware) are an increasingly dangerous threat today. The Ponemon Institute’s 2015 Cost of Cyber Crime Report claims that businesses sampled saw an average of 160 successful cyber-attacks per week.
The Solution:
Adding a Disaster Recovery Solution and implementing a Disaster Recovery plan can protect your business from the risks associated with data loss, however not all solutions are created equal. It’s important to have a backup and disaster recovery solution that provides benefits beyond file restoration.
Be Prepared for Any Disaster
Having a Disaster Recovery Solution is a good idea, but an actual data-loss event is not the time to use it for the first time. Additionally, not all disaster recovery efforts are the same. For example, recovery from a natural disaster like fire or flood can differ from a cybersecurity attack or a user error.
It’s important to simulate coordinated disaster recovery scenarios to ensure all the necessary technology is in place, personnel is trained, procedures are in place, and data is restored as fast as possible.
Cost Savings
In a worst-case scenario, the speed at which you can restore business continuity (a term commonly used for maintaining online systems, data and functionality) determines the magnitude of financial loss. Advancements in cloud technology offer small businesses an unprecedented opportunity to tap into resources that were once only available to large enterprise organizations. Cloud-based storage can help businesses drastically reduce the cost of data replication, offsite storage, and more.
In the event of a disaster, you can spin up virtual servers in the cloud to get your business back online in hours instead of days, mitigating your financial loss. The most current backup of your system will always be available – allowing you to get back to business, drive revenue, and restore employee productivity.
Peace of Mind
Just like any other technology, a Disaster Recovery Solution can only be effective if it is maintained, and unfortunately many solutions on the market are implemented and subsequently abandoned. Your solution should be supported by a team of technicians that constantly check to ensure your industry-standard, AES-256 encrypted data backups are verified – so that they will always be reliable, and available to use in the event of downtime.
In the end, backup and disaster recovery is about peace of mind. Hardware fails, employees make mistakes, security breaches are on the rise, and natural disasters are unavoidable; even in the face of unpredictable events, you can rest assured that you have a reliable solution and a reliable team in place at all times with a Disaster Recovery Solution from Les Olson Company. Knowing your business’ data can survive all of the above with the help of our team can enable you to confidently move your business successfully forward.
