Whatever trouble police officers find themselves in, they can count on their backup to help them push through. The same can be said about most businesses, but not all of them. According to Gartner, only 35% of small- and medium-sized businesses are confident with their backup and disaster recovery plans. This means a good portion of companies out there aren’t certain they’ll be able to make it in the event a natural or man-made disaster.
Let’s do the math: the average cost of an hour of downtime for a small business is around $8,000, and the average recovery time is approximately 18.5 hours. This totals to a staggering $148,00! Because of the hefty price tag that comes with downtime, it’s no surprise that businesses cease to operate when they neglect to implement a reliable data backup and disaster recovery solution.
Besides avoiding bankruptcy, the right data backup and disaster recovery plan can do wonders for your company. It’s undeniable that the chances of a hurricane ripping through your town are astronomical, but that doesn’t mean its impossible. If the monetary advantages haven’t convinced you enough, here are some more reasons why it’s key for your business to have a data backup and disaster recovery plan:
Convenience
The benefits of having a backup and recovery solution are both numerous and indisputable. Although data can be stored on mobile devices such as flash drives or external hard drives, they require the same level of manual and physical maintenance. As long as there is internet connectivity, you’ll be able to automatically save information from anywhere, relieving you of the time-consuming task of constantly saving, labeling and tracking information. The convenience of a backup and disaster recovery solution thus allows you to focus on growing your business instead of worry about data loss.
Safety
Because your data is stored in the Cloud, you won’t be susceptible to fires, flooding or break-ins. Moreover, your data is generally kept safe on secure and encrypted servers, which helps enhance data integrity. However, this doesn’t mean you should get comfortable; the type of backup and recovery solution depends on what type of data you’re planning to store -- you might want to look into additional cloud security options as well.
Recovery
According to the National Archives & Records Administration in Washington, 93 percent of companies that lost their data center for more than 10 days after a disaster strike filed for bankruptcy within one year following the disaster. More often than not, prolonged downtime can be linked to difficulty in recovering lost data due to the lack of sufficient data redundancy. With multiple levels of redundancy, your online backup services will be able to store multiple copies of your data throughout independent locations. Higher levels of data redundancy helps ensure your data will be better safeguarded, which means you’ll have a backup of your data were anything to happen.
Data versioning
There are certain things you can’t achieve with manual data backups on your own, and data versioning is one of them. This is when you preserve sequential data copies that allow you to search and recover data from earlier copies as well. This becomes especially useful when you’re working with data files that are regularly updated and need to recover versions that were accidentally overwritten or deleted.
Enhanced affordability
The operating costs of cloud-based backup solutions can be less expensive when compared to the cost of tapes, servers, or other hardware and software elements needed to carry out the backup. On top of that, you’ll be pinching pennies on the storage media, transportation between data and a remote location for storage, and the IT labor required to manage and troubleshoot your backup systems. In conclusion, companies that decide to invest in data backup solutions really save big bucks.
It’s undeniable that backup and recovery solutions are integral to the survival of every business. By investing and implementing a reliable and efficient backup solution, you won’t be leaving all your hard work to chance. At Complete Technology, we’d like to partner with you to safeguard your business from issues caused by human errors, natural disasters, and other uncontrollable factors that jeopardize the safety of your vital business data. We determine the ideal backup and recovery solution that meets your company’s needs and requirements, ensuring you are well-equipped for today’s ever-changing business environment. For further information, feel free to give us a call or send us an email.
