Why you need a backup and disaster recovery plan

Your company relies on its documents and applications to keep customers happy and to stay in business. Imagine what would happen if you suddenly lost access to all of it. If you’re lucky, your business may be able to come out unscathed, but the reality is many businesses affected by a major disaster close their doors for good.

To mitigate the financial losses caused by unforeseen events, many companies take out cyber insurance policies. However, no insurance policy is going to help you recover from reputational damage or retrieve the critical data you’ve lost. That’s why you also need a documented backup and disaster recovery plan.

#1. Natural disasters

Storms, floods, and fires can all cause irreparable damage to your digital assets by destroying hardware and backup media alike. Unlike many other incidents, a natural disaster might also render your primary workplace inoperable. That’s why backup and disaster recovery planning isn’t just about data; it also needs to incorporate people and processes.

With cloud backups, employees should be able to resume working from home or from a secondary location using their own devices with little-to-no disruption.

#2. Human errors

Many disasters start with human error, whether that’s succumbing to a phishing scam, accidentally deleting an important document, or even failing to turn a computer off properly. Just flipping the wrong switch can lead to a significant loss that could easily have been avoided.

Training programs can help reduce human error and, most importantly, susceptibility to cyberattacks. You can also mitigate employee-induced disasters by tightening access controls and automating your backup routines.

#3. Cyberattacks

Cyberattacks can strike at any time, and small businesses are a favorite target among hackers. Data breaches are especially severe since they can cause serious damage to your reputation, which is one of the most valuable things any business has. Another common threat is ransomware, which can render your data as good as lost.

Every business must take a multilayered approach to protecting its digital assets, and backup and disaster recovery is one of those layers. If data is lost or stolen to a cyberattack, disaster recovery is often your last line of defense.

#4. Hardware failures

Hardware failures can lead to extended periods of downtime. While most hardware can either be fixed or replaced fairly quickly, any accompanying data loss is a lot harder to mitigate if you don’t have a recent backup. Often far worse than losing the value of the hardware is losing the data stored on it.

Businesses can better protect their data by reducing their reliance on hardware. With cloud technology, they can build a software-defined computing architecture that’s kept safe across multiple locations, with redundant systems kicking in whenever the primary fails.

#5. Compliance

Businesses need to comply with a growing number of regulations, many of which include strict availability standards. In other words, if you lose your data to a disaster, you could also end up paying a fine if you haven’t made every reasonable step to protect it. For example, HIPAA gives organizations five days to respond to requests for information, while SOX requires CEOs to report financial results each quarter and year-end. To ensure your data stays available through any eventuality, a robust backup and disaster recovery plan is, indirectly at least, a compliance necessity.

NetWize prepares companies for catastrophe with a comprehensive data backup and disaster recovery plan. We’ll help you implement the solutions and even maintain your backups, so you always have access to your most critical assets. Call us today to ensure your business can survive the worst.