Your business is more vulnerable than ever to a disaster, one that could wipe out your entire data infrastructure—in a matter of seconds. Yes, in the blink of an eye, because of an event beyond your control, you could lose everything without a disaster recovery plan in place.
Any and every file. Gone.
You don’t know when, and you don’t know how your data could be impacted when disaster strikes. But if and when it does, are you prepared? Does your business have a disaster recovery plan? If not, you need one in order to reduce your business’s potential for damage.
Don’t be a victim of lost data. Be prepared.
What are disasters?
The word disaster in this context does not have much difference than disaster in its usual usage: an event that happens suddenly and causes sizable damage to life and property. It is the loss of property, one of your business’s most valuable resources, that can be prevented with the implementation of a disaster recovery plan.
Your business can be affected by many different types of disasters: natural, man-made, or technical. Natural disasters include floods, earthquakes, tornadoes, and landslides. Man-made disasters include material spills, civil unrest, and meltdowns. And, technical disasters include power failures, cyber-attacks, or even over-heating of a server.
Any and all of these types of disasters can immediately, without warning, shut your entire system down.
Why is disaster recovery important?
After your business has been incapacitated by a disaster, the after effects are damaging and costly to your business. You will experience indefinite downtime, which leads to severe losses for your business. Unquestionably, downtime is one of the biggest IT expenses that businesses face today. In fact, business downtime lasting only for an hour can cause small companies $8,000 in losses, $74,000 for medium-sized organizations, and a whopping $700,000 for larger businesses. Why is this, you ask? Simple, because significant downtime results in a loss of orders, failure to meet deadlines, late invoicing—the list goes on.
The IT Disaster Recovery Preparedness Council conducted a survey in 2014 in which they found 73% small or medium-sized businesses fail in having a proper disaster recovery plan, and you shouldn’t be among them. Without a disaster recovery plan, your business will take a very long time to get back on it’s feet, and you could face permanent loss of data, clients, reputation, and in the worst case, the entire business itself.
What exactly is a disaster recovery plan?
Many people confuse the term disaster recovery with data backup. They think that having software that backs up their data on a regular basis is analogous to having a disaster recovery plan. But this thinking is wrong. Yet, the list of companies that have suffered because of this very thinking is endless.
The fact is, data backup is just a small part of disaster recovery. While data backup aims to keep your data secure some place, so that you do not lose all your data when your central servers are hit by a disaster, disaster recovery is a mitigation strategy that aims to get your business up and running as soon as possible after you have been hit by a disaster. A disaster recovery is the fastest and most efficient path for recovering your data.
To have a disaster recovery plan, you can partner with companies that provide this service. First, they carefully analyze your business’s setup and network to know what data is vital. After this, they see how best to make the plan, so that the critical data is restored quickly after a disaster. Finally, they offer crucial knowledge that will help your business survive and withstand disaster.
When it comes to a disaster recovery plan, do not take it lightly. Consult an expert who can implement a plan that works best for your business. That way, you won’t be a victim—you’ll be prepared.
