It’s inevitable that at some point in life things go wrong and sadly disasters can happen. That’s why it’s important for organisations to put plans in place to ensure that if incidents such as fires, accidents, robberies etc were to occur, then there is a solution in place to combat the severity of these issues.
Unsurprisingly, no one wants incidences like this to happen, however, if they do your business should feel assured that the damage can be minimised, contained and managed. This is where Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) comes in. This would form part of your Business Continuity Plan and in turn reduces – your insurance premiums, the potential risk of losing valuable data and IT spending as there is no need for DR infrastructure of management.
Several businesses don’t consider IT disaster recovery as a service, or if they have, are doubtful in its success. Statistics show that 96% of companies with a trusted backup and disaster recovery plan were able to survive ransomware attacks. However, 93% of business who had not adopt DRaaS suffered from a major data disaster and were untradeable and out of business within just one year.
Some may think that this will only have a financial impact, but the reality is that disasters can upset your whole business. Disruptions to everyday business operations can result in a tarnished reputation, poor customer satisfaction – leaving competitors with the perfect opportunity to snatch up some of your customers!
If your business relies heavily on systems and technology, then preparing for scenarios which could threaten your security is fundamental. Yes, this means you will have to invest some time and money to implement this, it could be beneficial in the long run. What your business has to decide is can you afford to take this risk?
Why is it so important?
1. Without your data, your business doesn’t exist – any type of disaster that causes disruption in daily business operations can be devastating for a small organisations. Studies have indicated a high percentage of small business can fail permanently after significant outrage or data loss.
2. In today’s competitive marketplace – disaster recovery can be seen as just as or even more important for small businesses in the market. If you have no disaster recovery plan, then your business is at higher risk of data and/or financial loss, reduction in customer service, retention and damage to your reputation.
3. Don’t bank on the improbable – there are a broad range of disasters that can be caused by nature, technology and/ or humans that result in your business requiring quick recovery. Although certain types seem implausible, it is still critically important to recognise even the slightest possibility of a disaster to ensure you can rapidly restore daily business functions even on rare occurrences.
Benefits
- Business can continue operations while IT fix the problem – end users continue to access applications ad data, virtualised in the cloud.
- DRaaS can often spin up within minutes, putting employees and customers back in business with barely no downtime.
- There is no need to build and maintain a disaster recovery site to gain these advantages and there is no additional IT resources to manage and test.
- Cost savings – building and maintaining a secondary fail over site is not cheap. In fact, it can cost millions to cover the cost of leasing space and commissioning servers and storage hardware. Not to mention, all necessary replication and security software. Then there’s the monthly power and cooling costs and the dedicated personnel need to monitor and manage site operations.
Plan and Prepare in advance
If you live in the UK, you’ll understand the difficulty of anticipating what the weather is going to be like from one day to the next – no matter what the season. With little to no predictability, its hard to determine when bad weather incidences will hit.
However, what we do is that these incidences can affect your business’ physical office. That is why it is important to put measures in place to work remotely, so that your business doesn’t end up being on pause.
Regardless of the industry, no business is safe from IT devastation. Human error and network outbreaks are hard to control even with the most current and sophisticated defences installed on your system or deployment of highly skilled staff.
You may be thinking, how can I manage this risk? If you want to protect your business, then it is worthwhile considering disaster recovery as an essential. This will go hand in hand with your business continuity so, when it comes to planning, you should consider the knowledge and expertise of a managed service provider.
How can Kick help?
Kick offers a long-established IT support team who work to best provide the best possible security for your data and systems. If a problem arises you will know we will be bringing your systems back online within hours, so you can focus on other critical aspects of your organisation. Learn more about disaster recovery or speak with one of our IT specialists today by giving us a call on 01698 844 600.