You may have heard that you need a disaster recovery plan for your business, but do you really know why it’s important and what it actually means? Well, don’t worry, because that’s what we’re going to talk about here, our main objective being making sure that by using very simple terms, you will be familiar with backup and disaster recovery services.
Defining backup and disaster recovery strategy
Backup and disaster recovery strategy in simple words is the process of taking backup of your data and setting up security systems that help you to secure your data. Essentially, these are mechanisms put in place to protect your organization’s critical data.
We’ll walk you through the types and importance of data backup and recovery, risk factors, strategies used to deal with emergencies, and mistakes to avoid.
First of all, is there a difference between the two? Yes! Now, while both aim to protect critical business data, the two approaches are not the same. Here’s what you need to know:
Backups keep a copy of your critical data in a secondary location, from where it can be fully accessed and restored in the event of a disaster, while Disaster Recovery (DR) is a strategic planning model that ensures your data is protected and can be easily restored within minutes in the event of a cyberattack or natural disaster. A disaster recovery plan doesn’t just back up your data, it captures a snapshot of critical functions that make it easier to restore your full system and minimize disruption to business continuity.
You need a backup. This is not an option as it is a critical part of your business as research shows that approximately 70% of businesses have suffered data loss due to accidental deletion, disk or system failure, viruses or other disasters. Meanwhile, according to a study by Reports and Data, the global Data Backup and Recovery Market is forecast to reach USD 19.96 Billion by 2028.
What are the different types of backup?
Full Backup: An important and complete backup operation copies all your data to another device setting such as a disk, tape, or CD. However, a complete copy of all your data is made available in a single device set. Backing up your data takes a long time and requires a lot of storage space; therefore, a differential or incremental backup is used in conjunction with other types of backups.
Differential Backup: This backup will copy all changed data from a previous episode, but will continue to copy all data restored from the last requested full backup each time it is performed.
Incremental backup – This operation copies data that has changed since the last backup process. A backup operation will record and keep track of the time and date that all backup operations occur. This operation is faster and requires less storage space.
Before we dive into why your business needs data backup and recovery, you need to know what causes data loss. Below are the top three reasons for data loss and downtime:
- Human error
According to a survey by the uptime institute, up to 75% of data center outages are due to human At the same time, more than 30% of IT services and data center operators experience downtime or severe service degradation, while 10% of the respondents said their most recent incident cost them over a million dollars. - Ransomware
Malware, breaches, phishing and other cyberattacks have been on the rise for years, but the explosion in ransomware attacks and the cost of recovering them is disrupting the IT security landscape.
According to research from “The State of Ransomware 2021”, Sophos reported that over the past year, the average bill for rectifying a ransomware attack, considering downtime, people time, device cost, network cost, missed opportunity, ransom paid, , was $1.85 million. - Natural Disasters
Volatile weather events such as hurricanes, floods, tornadoes and wildfires put businesses and their data at Flooding, for example, can cause emergency systems to fail and prevent staff from reaching their data centers. Additionally, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, August averages more than 9,000 wildfires and nearly two million acres of damage.
Now that you have an idea of what might be the underlying reason for data loss in case it happens, it is exactly time to discuss the importance of data backup and restoration.
In today’s modern world, it’s very important to be vigilant because the average website will be attacked for weak spots, multiple times a With the help of our free guide, you’ll get more help on what this article describes to make sure you’re always prepared.
Why is backup and recovery important for your business?
- Enhanced Data Protection
Various cloud-based storage solutions and modern backup solutions rely on strong security Using in-transit and at-rest encryption, zero-trust security models can provide advanced data protection and secure confidential company data such as customer details, transition details, etc. - Automation increases efficiency and reliability.
Relying on manual backups creates a headache for businesses. It’s also unreliable, inconvenient, time consuming, consumes higher bandwidth, and requires more storage space. It is best to choose commercial-grade backup and recovery software that will help you manage space and bandwidth by minimizing footprint through various mechanisms such as data duplication, compression, data filtering and bandwidth throttling, while increasing reliability through automation. - Easy Data Recovery in the Event of a Disaster
Not all endpoints in your organization have backup software installed. Such companies run a high risk of permanently losing endpoint data in the event of a malware, ransomware attack, or hardware failure. Therefore, it is necessary to minimize the risk of data loss by recovering essential data with high-end backup software. - Improve Employee Productivity
When a business loses data, it loses more than just data. Employees have to rework on various things to recover data that directly affects their productivity. You must have a recovery solution. If you don’t have one, it will be difficult to restore your data and start from scratch again to recover the loss. - Increased Competitive Position
Cloud backup and recovery solutions provide better access to business data and secure data against attacks such as malware and ransomware. This process of data protection and availability gives any business an edge over the competition and helps provide superior customer service. - Minimize the threat
Companies’ data is a potential target for attackers, and it’s important to protect data from viruses, hackers, and malicious entities. They can target any business, regardless of its size or industry, with malicious intent. A backup is the best way to guard against malware if you have a secure copy of all your data. This way you can manage your financial growth and your reputation.
What data should you backup?
Businesses produce data from almost every process in the organization. Each department needs certain types of data to function. Website interactions fuel sales and marketing. Digital communications are essential to customer service, and financial data helps stakeholders visualize profits. When turned into information, all business data reveals opportunities and helps businesses compete in their markets.
You should back up your files, folders, images, product descriptions, collections, payments, delivery information, vendor information, personally identifiable information (PII), account information, transactions, interactions, and payment information. In the case of third-party SaaS, most vendors only back up their own platform, so if an error occurs on their end, you may face a data disaster that would be difficult to recover from. This means that all data should be backed up and made available for quick recovery when needed.
When devising your data recovery strategy, here’s what you should do:
- Make a record all hardware and software applications.
- Assess the impact of any potential downtime / data loss; RPO – Recovery Point Objective (How much data can you afford to lose?) and RTO Recovery Time Objective (How long can you afford not to run your critical systems?).
- Prioritize the importance of different applications / types of data you use.
- Agree on clear responsibilities for employees and suppliers.
- Document a clear process on what should happen in the event of a disaster.
- Perform regular rehearsals to test the plan.
- Check the validity of data that you regularly back up; don’t assume it’s correct.
- How confident are you that you can recover your data and be up and running on time?
- Create a communication plan. What should you tell your staff about how they can keep working? How will you assure your customers, suppliers and other stakeholders that you have everything in place to continue operating?
Conclusion
You really need to have a regular and consistent data backup and recovery strategy in place to protect your business and its data from data loss and other threats. Backup and disaster recovery plans can only be useful if they are designed, implemented and tested long before they are needed. To get started, download our free guide here to learn more about our data recovery and backup solutions.
