REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD HAVE A BACKUP & DISASTER RECOVERY (BDR) PLAN
REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD HAVE A BACKUP & DISASTER RECOVERY (BDR) PLAN
Disasters are not predictable, but you can plan to minimize their effects. Disasters can come in different forms such as fires, floods, human error, server crashes, viruses, or hacking attacks, so you want to have a plan in place to improve resiliency and ensure recovery of your business.
BDR planning is about taking responsibility to decide and actualize a plan to keep your business in business at all times. The Business Continuity Institute defines BDR as “having a plan to deal with difficult situations, so your organization can continue to function with as little disruption as possible.”
REASONS WHY YOU NEED A BDR PLAN
1.Downtime is expensive Statistics reveal that only 20% of SMBs can bounce back to normalcy, after a system breakdown. An ESG Research Review Data Protection Survey reports that 53% of companies begin to get adversely effected, after only an hour’s downtime. The National Archives and Records Administration reports that more than 90 percent of companies go out of business within a year of experiencing a seven-day downtime of data.
2.Customers demand 24×7 access In today’s competitive business landscape, delays of any kind and loss of functionality, even for a few minutes, are held against you. Customers demand 24X7 access to your systems and don’t think twice before abandoning you for a competitor. System downtime equals referring your customers to your competition.
3.Software and hardware are prone to failure The two leading causes of data loss are hardware and software failures. The only way forward is to be prepared for such an eventuality and maintain data integrity by employing appropriate mechanisms to detect and remedy data corruption.
4.Human error and natural disasters are inevitable The number one cause of data loss is attributed to human errors as the workforce runs into different scenarios that can result in data loss, such as a file deletion in error, misses in data backup, equipment loss, etc. Added to these is the long list of natural calamities such as floods, tornadoes, wildfires, etc. which are a recurring reality of our times.
5.Cyberattacks are on the rise The rising rate of cybercrime doubles the need to fortify your business. With a foolproof BDR plan, you will be saved from paying a hefty ransom in case of an attack. A well thought out BDR plan may seem expensive to begin with, but minimizes loss by ensuring an organized recovery of data and business continuity.
6.Compliance and regulations Trade and business laws in many countries require businesses to have BDR plans and reports. Business leaders are presented with the dual task of not only finding a BDR solution that offers swift recovery and robust data security but also solves compliance challenges.
7.It’s a matter of business credibility To answer investors and customers regarding the loss of data is probably not a great place to be in. However unintentional it may be, it results in loss of credibility in the market and could sometimes translate into not staying in business anymore.
BDR PLAN ESSENTIALS
A BDR plan ideally includes everything that helps restore business-critical systems to normalcy or near-normalcy after a disruption. The business leadership must identify and work with a partner who has experience in disaster recovery solutions, to ensure the continuity of their business. The right vendor should be able to help businesses strategize and build a robust disaster recovery plan.
When it comes to BDR plans and solutions, each business is unique and needs to take into consideration customer demands and service portfolios. It involves prioritizing business-critical processes that need backup, deciding the frequency of backup, plans to continue business operations, potential emergency scenarios and each team member’s response role, etc. in the event of a disaster. An ideal BDR plan and solution should necessarily have:
Cloud Support: A BDR solution should not just depend on datacenter backup, but should leverage the security that cloud provides. It should also have secondary plans in place that include virtualization, which provides business continuity in the event of a cloud disruption.
Round the clock support: Disasters and disruptions can happen at any time. A BDR solution that you choose should be available 24x7x365.
Usage-based pricing: A BDR solution should allow you to scale up and down based on business requirements and keep costs low while helping improve margins.
Flexible hardware compatibility: The BDR solution should be flexible and compatible across hardware devices.
Uninterrupted recovery: The BDR solution must enable you to restore your systems at a moment’s notice through a process of continuous data backup to a virtual standby server.
Least possible recovery time: The real test of a BDR plan is in how fast data and systems get back to normalcy after a disruption. It should not take more than a couple of minutes.
Learn why securing data is critical for business continuity – View infographic on ‘The importance of backup and disaster recovery’
THE CLOUD SOLUTION
BDR solutions in the Cloud are a more affordable choice and far more customizable. Invest in a Backup and Disaster Recovery (BDR) solution that maintains backup in real-time, in a different location. Ensure that it not just recovers your data quickly, but also offers reasonable speed and performance. Make sure that these multiple backup locations are on different power grids, to be doubly safe.
When looking for a BDR solution in the Cloud, ensure it is:
A backup and disaster recovery rolled into one:
Most often, a BDR solution in the Cloud acts both as a real-time backup, as well as a disaster recovery solution. It ensures that your systems are backed-up and secured in real time and are available for boot up immediately, in case of an emergency. In the event of either a full or partial downtime, the cloud solution will step in to prevent expensive downtime and harsh customer backlash.
Completely customizable and pay-as-you-use services:
A BDR solution in the Cloud, allows you to activate and disable resources based on your budget, performance and security requirements. You only pay for data backup, when there is no disaster and do not use any computing capacities.
