Data is an invaluable business asset, and protecting against a data disaster has become an essential part of business continuity planning. Most companies are simply unable to withstand damages caused by a significant data loss event – and many do not realize that restoring operations can take a matter of weeks, not days, depending on the nature of the disaster and the backup & recovery solutions you have in place.
From the moment a data failure occurs, every minute of downtime is a threat to your organization’s future; it shakes the confidence of customers, employees, and investors. A rapid and reasoned response is your business’s best course forward, and without proper preparation, you could suffer irreparable harm.
It’s estimated that when small-to-medium businesses without a disaster recovery strategy or plan suffer malware attacks, 40-60% will go out of business as a direct result. With these high stakes of being unprepared, planning for rapid recovery is a key management responsibility.
Multiple components affect downtime and disaster recovery. The first essential step is to have cloud backups for your critical files. Subsequently, more advanced solutions such as Dedicated Recovery Servers and Data Protection onsite and offsite are crucial for business continuity and rapid recovery. An effective recovery strategy is equally important, as it provides a blueprint for how your business operations will move forward with minimal devastation.
Businesses that invest the time and energy to organize an emergency response plan have far fewer headaches – and potentially lost revenue – if a disaster occurs. Anticipating and preparing for the worst scenario will help protect essential operations and arm leadership with concrete steps necessary to stay calm and clear-headed.
Establish an in-depth plan for how to proceed if the worst should happen and catastrophic data loss occurs. How much downtime can your business afford? Assess honestly the disruption a data disaster would have on your operation. Then put together both an IT recovery plan – and furthermore, a business continuity plan – that reflects and accounts for the risk that your organization faces with downtime. Without these blueprints, the potential is great for significant revenue loss and irreparable damage to your business.
Your plan should balance both time and expense – including specific and detailed steps that need to be taken to restore operations quickly and completely. Making sure your Recovery solutions are aligned before a disaster is key to minimizing risk. For a full discussion of this important planning, download the eBook “Align Disaster Recovery Strategies and Solutions in Five Steps”.
Balancing Time and Expenses
Moving forward from a data event can sometimes take weeks or even months depending on the nature of the disaster and the solutions you have in place. For instance, recovering from hardware failure may entail locating and purchasing new equipment, which takes time to arrive and set up, especially considering supply chain issues. But effective preparation can greatly shorten this delay.
The right recovery partner can provide optional emergency hosting for businesses if your building is impacted or if your network has been infected and is temporarily unavailable. Depending on the provider, companies may have access to a recovered server within hours of it being down.
There are numerous causes for the failure, but the consequences are the same. Whatever the cause of data loss or systems failure, recovery is sure to be fraught with uncertainty.
Careful preparation and a clearly defined process are required to manage your team and mitigate damage. Waiting until disaster strikes is too much of a gamble and the stakes are far too high. There are many components affected by disaster including Facilities, People, Communications, Equipment, Operating Systems and Data. The best business practice is to have a strong business continuity plan that addresses each and to conduct drills so that all team members are familiar with how to move forward.
Data Backups are only One Component of Disaster Recovery.
- Recent data suggest that 96% of companies with a trusted backup and disaster recovery plan were able to survive ransomware attacks.
- While 93% of companies without any Disaster Recovery strategy in place who suffered a major data disaster were out of business within one year.
- Every business today essentially runs on data.
- The ability to protect data and avoid business downtime will continue being a challenge going forward as ransomware attacks grow in number and sophistication.
- It’s estimated that downtime costs $1,467.00 per minute or $88,000 per hour, according to Veeam’s 2022 Data Protection Trends Report.
Planning Is Essential for Business Continuity and Minimizing Expensive Disruption
It’s no longer a question of if your business will be affected by data loss – but when. With multiple potential threats to data security and growing dependence on multiple servers and applications, the time to prepare for recovery is long before disaster strikes.
Effective pre-planning begins with identifying which systems/servers and applications are vital for business operations, and which are less important. Has your organization taken an accurate inventory of critical applications and data, then triaged their recovery priority? Your IT team and other management staff need to be well-versed in how to proceed to regain operations as quickly as possible.
Determine Your Recovery Time Objective (RTO)
The heart of pre-planning is your company’s Recovery Time Objective – essentially, this is the length of time your business can endure without a particular system or data assets before incurring unacceptable (and often irreparable) harm. This objective will help determine how often a Recovery Point should be scheduled – the exact time files are backed up and available for restoration by a system or application if necessary.
For some organizations, a daily backup schedule may be sufficient. Others may need an hourly schedule or continuous protection. Next, consider the impact on various aspects of your operations and anticipate the needs of each. These areas may be logically grouped under the following categories:
Recovery Workspace
Facilities – Consider how your business will proceed if your physical servers are damaged by a flood, fire, hurricane or tornado, or other natural disasters. Having a workaround for your sites will minimize downtime. What’s your plan for a temporary workspace? Even if many employees work remotely, identifying appropriate space ahead of time greatly simplifies continuity.
People – Educate management well ahead of time so department heads know how to proceed and how to maintain daily operations with as little disruption as possible. Consider the additional complexity of supporting a remote workforce. Data disaster drills are also a good idea. A popular practice within many IT departments, these exercises challenge employees to make decisions quickly and solidify appropriate choices. Your DR Plan’s effectiveness is subject to ongoing testing in order to adapt with your evolving needs.
Communications Continuity
Communications – Have you considered how key employees can stay in touch without the benefit of email or server-based communications? Identify a contingency plan ahead of time and make sure key personnel also have traditional contact information such as telephone numbers. It may sound surprising but reflect on how many companies now rely on web-based platforms for phone contact.
Operating System
Operating System – Protecting your operating systems for servers and PC’s is imperative to minimize your downtime. Solutions such as Bare Metal Backup, Virtual Machine backups & server cloning to reduce the time to rebuild Operating System Environments (OSE’s). Every company’s RPO and RTO are slightly different. Mixing and matching snapshot and log-based replication solutions based on level of criticality to protect your OS, critical hardware, applications and data during recovery to help mitigate your organization’s risk.
Data Backup
Frequent backups on a regular schedule are a must; setting and maintaining timely backups of data minimize the potential impact of data events for your business. Approaching data recovery as an important business planning responsibility will help you shield your operations from a stressful and potentially very costly data failure. While it’s possible to accomplish this type of planning on your own, this is one area of business insurance best left to those who are specialists in the protection and recovery of data files. If you decide to work with a partner, request assistance and advice on each of the following steps to ensure the most secure and best outcome.
- Enlist the help of your team in compiling an effective strategy based on your need for quick access and protection of vital client relationships. Leadership, management, and team members must be aligned.
- Develop key elements of your strategy. Establish Recovery Objectives and define the success parameters of effective recovery and make sure your planning addresses these appropriately.
- Install effective backup. Establish a timely and secure backup protocol for duplicating essential files, especially those without which you would find it difficult to remain in business – such as financials, tax records, inventory, jobs currently in process, operational protocols, etc.
- Select solutions and procedures that align with your strategy. You may start with a simple plan of action to include recovery steps and responsible individuals. To make your plan more robust, assemble a task force internally to ascertain the applications and data each department considers most important.
- Seek expert help. If the steps outlined above seem a bit daunting, please know that you’re not alone. Recovery planning is an important task for every business. Consider tagging an expert who can explain and work through your needs, explaining in layman’s terms how your recovery plan can be most effectively executed.
Time is of the essence, and you need your critical IT services restored as quickly as possible when they are down. Taking the time to evaluate all the components affected by a disaster or data loss event in advance, coupled with having the correct recovery solutions in place that meet your company’s Recovery Time Objectives will minimize your company’s downtime.
RenovoData is a leading regulatory-compliant, cloud data protection IT services company. Our solutions range from File and Database Backup, Server Recovery, Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS), Custom Cloud Hosting and Consulting solutions for on-premises and hosted environments.