The Benefits of Backup and Disaster Recovery
Backup and disaster recovery are like a superhero and sidekick; one saves your data from a disaster while the other helps to ensure a smooth return to normal operations. In this case, backup is the superhero, and disaster recovery acts as the sidekick. Both of these are necessary to protect and secure your data while allowing you to worry about one less thing on your busy plate.
And if you’re thinking a data disaster won’t happen to you, think again. No one is safe from a cyberattack, employee mistakes, fires, floods, or other natural disasters. Not to mention, 93% of companies without a disaster recovery solution who suffer a major data disaster are out of business within one year.
You’re not going to let that happen to you, are you?
Let’s take a more in-depth look at what each means and the benefits of using them.
The Benefits of Backup and Disaster Recovery
What Is Backup and Disaster Recovery
Often the terms backup and disaster recovery are used interchangeably, however, each means a different thing for your business security. Before we get into why you need a backup and disaster recovery solution, let’s cover what each one does.
Backup – A backup is the process of duplicating or making extra copies of your data. This is usually done in three locations: on-site, off-site, and the cloud.
Disaster Recovery – This is your plan and processes for a quick return to resume business operations. Your disaster recovery solution should be documented and tested, so when the time comes to implement your plan it works without a hinge.
Stay Secure and Compliant
Businesses that have to comply with consumer data protection laws, such as HIPAA and GLBA, are required to backup their data in order to properly protect sensitive consumer information. By not doing so, those businesses run the risk of non-compliance fines, a damaged reputation, and other legal concerns.
If your industry does not have to adhere to the above laws, it’s still important for your customers' security and your sanity to backup your data. Just think about the consequences of losing all of your customers’ information from a data disaster just because you don’t have that information backed up somewhere else.
Not to mention, if you’re victim to a ransomware attack, but have a recent backup, you can usually avoid paying a ransom to get your files back.
Avoid High Costs of Downtime
According to Gartner, the average cost of I.T. downtime is $5,600 per minute. That’s insane! Since all businesses have different operating costs, on the high-end you could be losing $540,000 per hour and on the low-end $140,000 per hour. This amount increases when you don’t have an effective disaster recovery plan in place.
Without a plan in place on how to quickly resume operations, your employees are left to scramble for a solution. Instead of scrambling, have the necessary steps and processes documented, so that everyone knows what to do, when to do it, who to communicate with, and so on. Here’s what to include in your disaster recovery plan.
Increase Your Revenue
When business comes to a halt due to downtime, you’re not generating money. Rather, losing it…and quickly. This is due to employees unable to work, production is at a standstill, customer needs are unable to be met, and so forth.
Aside from revenue losses caused by long downtime, your reputation could take a hit too. In turn, a loss of customers, current and future. Not to mention, this will have them running to your competition. Don’t make it that easy for your competitors to take your clients. Instead, having the correct backup and disaster recovery plan in place can decrease downtime and increase your revenue.
Use an MSP
If backup and disaster recovery has your head spinning, you’re in luck. Most MSPs offer the two as a part of their managed I.T. solution. This means less worrying and stress for you when you allow a team of experts to properly handle the safe storage and security of your data.
Aside from fail-safe backups, your MSP will help you prepare a disaster recovery plan that works best for your organization. Ensuring you meet your recovery time objective, your files get restored, and so that downtime and downtime costs are minimal.
What's Next?
After reading all of the above, why wouldn’t you want a backup and disaster recovery solution in place? And if you’re still thinking you’ll never need a backup or disaster recovery solution, just remember that you won’t have a warning before disaster strikes. And when it does strike, what will you do next?
To learn more about how our backup and disaster recovery solution could benefit you, take a peek at our site.
