If your first impulse upon reading this is to think, “I don’t need to worry about having backup and disaster recovery services, nothing is ever going to happen to my business,” then please, please, please do yourself this one small favor and just read a tiny bit further – at least to our first question and answer.
Are You a Human Being?
If you answered no, feel free to bounce (though now we are REALLY curious…). If you answered yes, then you need to be prepared for a business disaster. Because 58% of downtime is due to human error. If you are a human being with employees, then it’s far more likely that your business disaster will be of the human variety than a natural disaster (though those pesky things happen too). All the earthquakes, hurricanes and fires in the universe don’t measure up to the damage inflicted on businesses by Janice from Accounting. That means that it’s far more likely that Steve in HR trips and spills a cup of coffee on the server than Mother Nature comes after it. There’s also of course the reality that hardware ages out and sometimes fails for reasons no one can predict. So there is also the disaster of arriving to the office to find that one of your servers failed in the wee hours of the morning. RIP Server. And congrats – you now have a local disaster on your hands. Are you ready for it? (Shameless plug…with a Corsica Tech service plan, you get 24/7 monitoring…so if/when that server fails at 0-dark-thirty, we’ll get an alert and can get started on a fix for it before you fix your first cup of coffee.) You see, we can’t stop accidents from happening or servers from dying any more than we can stop the rain. Nor can we stop data from growing or lessen our dependence on technology and systems…and who really wants to?
So What Is Your Disaster Recovery Solution?
Data is making us all smarter, more efficient and more competitive. The technology that powers business is powerful, fast and responsive to the demands of today’s customers. But if you aren’t smart about planning for the worst, then you will unfortunately learn how vulnerable all the reliance on technology and data has made us to losing it. So instead of attempting to prevent the inevitable or worse yet, ignoring the fact that you don’t have a plan to both protect AND quickly recover your data, isn’t a smarter strategy taking steps to ensure that you are fully prepared?
Here’s Why a Disaster Recovery Solution Is Critical for the Health of Your Business
Disaster Recovery is different from data backups, so if you’re thinking you’re good to go because you have a modern data backup solution in place, well, don’t quit reading just yet. You pass the class with a backup solution…but you ace it when you have a full disaster recovery solution in place. Side note: If you DO NOT have a modern backup solution, then that is a critical Step 1 and needs to be considered high priority. And for the love of all things I.T. please do not mistake your tape backup for a “modern” solution, when it was cutting-edge four decades ago. Think about it this way. If you knew that tomorrow your office would be devastated by an electrical fire (or by Susie in Marketing), would you take steps today to not just protect, but also be able to quickly access all the data that powers your business, so that you could continue to operate? We’ll go ahead and answer that one for you…of course you would. In a nutshell, that is what Disaster Recovery is. It’s different from data backups – both modern and antiquated – because it represents that next level of planning and is what happens with that protected data after a disaster strikes. Because having all your data safely stored is one thing…having a place to put it is another matter altogether. Fundamentally, it’s the difference between just surviving a disaster and continuing to thrive in spite of one.
Still Think Disaster Recovery Isn’t Necessary? Then Start Planning Out (and Saving $ For) Your Downtime
Ok then. If you aren’t going to plan for the disaster then there is something else that you will want to plan for – downtime. That’s right, we said downtime, which means lost time, money and potentially customers. According to a 2012 study done by Independent Oracle User Group, 35% of small businesses lost as much as $500K due to downtime. A very unlucky 3% lost over $1 million from downtime. This is what happens at least if you scramble to retrieve, restore and access data after a disaster. And this holds true whether said disaster is brought on by a simple accident, old hardware, a disgruntled employee or Mother Nature herself. According to IDG, it takes around 7 hours to resume normal operations after a data-loss incident…though nearly 20% of IT managers put that estimate at between 11 and 24 hours. The point of this isn’t to scare you (OK, maybe a little!) but to make sure that your eyes are wide open when it comes to data protection and the need for a disaster recovery solution. And most importantly, the potential for it to happen to you – yes, YOU – as a result of having employees who walk, talk, drink and eat. Because s*!@ happens, and the best we can do is be ready for it.
Corsica Tech Can Help You Prepare for a Business Disaster
It just so happens that we have a full disaster recovery solution! Through the installation of an appliance on-site, you will have a backup solution that can also run a failed server instantly. Our solution incorporates both local and cloud-based backups to ensure that no matter what the disaster, your data is never out of reach. If you are interested in learning more about Corsica’s Disaster Recovery solution and how it can help you sleep better at night, call us today at 877-367-9348 or complete the form below and someone will be in touch with you right away.
