You need a Disaster Recovery plan

It’s no secret that businesses depend on data, documents and critical applications on a daily basis. Some of which is highly sensitive. Losing access to this information with no backup and recovery plan could result in loss of revenue if there was an outage for a long period of time. In our last edition of discussing Disaster Recovery we talked through the common myths of disaster recovery. In this latest edition we discuss the role and importance of having an action plan in place.

The role of Disaster Recovery

Many threats, whether a natural event or human error can affect the loss of data and interfere with your operations. It is crucial that regardless of the cause, your business can keep running. A disaster recovery plan will do just that. A well- designed plan will determine how quickly your organisation can ensure business continuity and resolve data loss in the event of an unexpected incident.

Do I really need a Disaster Recovery plan?

Many situations can halt the day to day operations of your business and/or cause loss of data:

1) Hardware Failure

There is always a chance of your hardware failing, no matter how new or reliable it is. 45% of companies that reported downtime incidents said it was due to hardware failure.

This could be simple mundane problems such as network issues, faulty drivers or even routine infrastructure obstacles. If these systems fail, there is a chance of your data going with it, so don’t forget adding backup recovery to your plans too.

2) Human error

Often the cause behind disasters are us humans ourselves. While it could be unintentional, there are measures that can be taken to reduce the chances of repeating these actions. Having a detailed and comprehensive plan would allow employees across organisations to stay up to date with steps to take during a disaster.

3) Cyber attacks

Cyber attacks are becoming increasingly common, particularly ransomware which maliciously attempts to infect your computer and encrypt important files. Your plan should include recovery steps to fight against such attacks. In fact, 96% of companies with a disaster recovery plan were able to actively survive ransomware attacks.

4) Natural disasters

Some circumstances are out of our control, so there’s no prediction of when mother nature can creep up on us. Whether it’s a flood, fire or a storm, the damage that can be done to your business can be extremely destructive. Research indicates 90% of business fail if they are unable to open quick enough. Not having an effective DR plan in place may result in difficulty to continue ‘business as normal’ due to not planning ahead for contingencies.

The risks of not having a Disaster Recovery Plan

Findings shows that 60% of organisations aren’t equipped with a full documented disaster recovery plan. The other 40% claims that although they have a plan, it isn’t as effective as it should be for when things take a turn for the worse. When you do have a plan in place, it’s worth going over and identifying any weaknesses that may affect your business if there was ever to be a disaster.

The cost of downtime

Recovering from a disaster can be extremely costly, 60% of small businesses who lose access to their systems and data with no DR plan, close their doors for the foreseeable future. If companies did recover, they did so at a much higher cost and increased downtime compared to companies with a solution in place.

Loss of clients

Regardless of the situation, the show must go on. Not having a plan to combat the issue can result in unhappy customers due to not receiving the service they would if your systems were up and running. In the worst-case scenario, you could lose valuable customers. Although people are more aware of information security, they may be apprehensive as to where their sensitive information is and what you as a company are doing to resume business operations.

Reputational damage

You don’t need us to tell you the reputational damage that can occur after a disaster. Even after resuming back to normal, the effects of disasters are long standing and could impact your business’ reputation due to poor disaster management.

Business failure

No organisation is immune to disruption, an enormous and wide-spread disruption to your network and infrastructure has the ability to cause huge impact to your business by completely diminishing it. Incorporating data backup with your disaster recovery plan can help your business to survive such disasters.

It’s easy to ignore disaster recovery planning, but sooner or later, you may find yourself in a worst-case situation without a detailed plan of action. You need to be prepared to recover quickly.

Need help building a disaster recovery plan? At OryxAlign, our IT experts can help you build and integrate a personalised data management and disaster recovery solution. If you’re interested in learning more about our service, get in touch here for a free consultation or call us on 0207 605 7890.