Why You Must Protect Your Business with Data Backup and Disaster Recovery Strategies
Every business strategy is data-driven. As everything goes digital, data is money. Data loss directly translates into revenue and productivity loss, as well as loss of reputation with clients. Data loss can happen due to various reasons such as cyber-attacks, natural disasters, machine malfunction or even human error. No matter what industry you are engaged in, loss of data is bad news for your business.
The solution? Effective data backup and disaster recovery strategies.
Data Backup and Disaster Recovery
Let us start with understanding what data backup refers to. If you have a system in place to duplicate your business data and store it in a medium where it will be safe from data loss threats, it is termed data backup. This way, even if you suffer data loss due to security breaches, file corruption or unintentional deletion, the duplicate version can be quickly and easily retrieved.
Now let us come to disaster recovery. In the event of a data loss, you must have an efficient plan to quickly recover lost files and restore them to your company database, corporate network, records department and servers. Your business processes must get going again with minimum time delay. This will be your disaster recovery plan. Data backup is an essential element of a Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP).
Importance of a Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP)
If you suffer a major data loss, the focus must be on retrieving the lost data and getting the systems up and running in the shortest possible time. If you fail to do so and the data recovery takes days, your business will lose precious working days and irreparable financial losses.
There are more reasons why an effective disaster recovery plan is important for your business. These include:
1. Protecting sensitive information of customers
Your business database will feature extensive details about your customers – mail ids, phone numbers, physical addresses, financial information, business deals and more. If this data gets lost or finds its way into the wrong hands, it can strain your relationship with customers and clients.
2. Protecting your business reputation
If your business loses data, especially to cyberattacks, it does not convey a positive image of your company. Security breaches can make you appear irresponsible towards customer privacy and not doing enough to secure customer data. However, if your business is prepared for such risks and bounces back in no time after an experience of data loss, customers will be convinced that your company is reliable and trustworthy.
3. Ensuring you are free to focus on more important things
If you are forever worrying about a possibility of data loss that could send your business spiralling downwards, it is tough to concentrate on growing your business. You will be second-guessing every business strategy. Implementing a powerful and rigorously tested disaster recovery strategy available from leading Managed IT firms in Perth is just what you need to restore your peace of mind and take your business to new heights.
4. Cost-effective
Activating a disaster recovery plan can be a smart investment for your business in many ways. The cost of implementing disaster recovery strategies is much lower than the financial loss and business disruption faced in the event of a data loss.
Data backup options for your business
Today, Managed IT Service Providers offer you a wide array of data backup options based on the size of your company, available budget and the size of data to be backed up.
Small businesses often prefer to store their duplicated data in hard drives within their office premises. This is not wise since hardware malfunction or power outages can make it impossible to access this data.
Offsite backups and cloud-based backups are safer options, as they encrypt and store data. More importantly, data can be backed up instantly so that there is no risk of data being lost due to delayed backups.
Barriers to implementing Disaster Recovery strategies
In an ACSC small business survey, it was found that Australian SMBs typically face four barriers to implementing good cybersecurity practices. Cyber-incidents being the major reason for data loss, these four reasons are true for Disaster Recovery resistance too.
- Not having dedicated IT staff with an IT security focus
- Underestimating risk, recovery periods and consequences
- Insufficient planning and assessment of vulnerability
- Inability to identify where to begin due to the complexity of the technology involved
What data should a business backup?
It is important for a business to regularly backup data to protect against data loss due to hardware failures, software bugs, or other unforeseen issues. Some examples of data that a business might want to consider backing up include:
- Financial data, including accounting records and transaction records Customer and client information, including contact details and relevant documents
- Employee records, including resumes, contracts, and payroll information Marketing and sales materials, including presentations and customer lists
- Product or service information, including descriptions, pricing, and inventory data Intellectual property, such as copyrighted materials and trade secrets
- Legal documents, such as contracts and licenses
Proactive is the way forward
Now that you understand why disaster recovery is important, do not wait any longer to explore your data backup and recovery options. If you face any of the above four problems or don’t have a DRP in place, the time to act is now.
Considering the highly data driven business settings these days, your data may not be 100% safe from threats and losses all the time. However, what really matters is how prepared you are for such emergencies and how quickly you are able to pick up and get going. This will ultimately depend on effective, well-planned and meticulously tested disaster recovery strategies.
IT risks, as well as safety solutions, change frequently, and therefore your strategies should also keep up with them. When was the last time your business had a Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) audit? Is your DRP adequate and efficient? Talk to our experts to get a Disaster Readiness Audit done to find how safe your business data is and what you should do next.
Jargon Buster
Cloud-based backups – A service where data and applications of a business are backed up on a remote server.
Disaster Readiness Audit – An audit to determine how efficient a Disaster Recovery Plan is at mitigating, preparing, responding, and recovering from disasters.
by The Computing Australia Group