Category Archives: Data Backup

Ten Disaster Recovery Statistics You Should Know

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): Businessman working on his laptop showing management of company data using cloud backup - concept of disaster recovery strategies

Have a clear disaster recovery plan for your organization.

Data loss is a serious problem that can have a devastating effect on businesses. In fact, data recovery statistics show that data loss can be extremely costly and time-consuming. Here are some of the most recent data recovery statistics that explore the reality of data loss.

  • Gartner found that 72 percent of organizations are not well-positioned with regard to disaster recovery capabilities, with 59 percent of respondents expecting budgetary increases for disaster recovery this year.
  • Companies without an effective disaster recovery plan stand to lose millions. According to Gartner, the average cost of IT downtime is $5,600 per minute (adding up to more than $300,000 per hour). For large organizations, that number tops half a million dollars.
  • Ransomware is a huge concern, and many people don’t realize that their disaster recovery plan may not work when they need it most. This adds significant risk to your ability to recover from ransomware if you are not prepared for the attack. In a recent study, IDC reported that 37 percent of companies worldwide were hit by ransomware in the previous 12 months. The average ransom paid was $250K, though some hackers asked for as much as 1M dollars.
  • Ninety-six percent of companies with a trusted backup and disaster recovery plan were able to survive ransomware attacks.
  • A disaster can strike at any time and without warning, so it is imperative that you have a plan in place to help your company recover quickly from these events. However, FEMA found that 20 percent of companies have no disaster recovery planning in place.
  • A report by the Ponemon Institute reveals that 93 percent of companies that lost their data center for 10 days or more due to a disaster, filed for bankruptcy within one year of the disaster. Fifty percent of businesses that found themselves without data management for this same time period filed for bankruptcy immediately.
  • Cloud backup can be an incredibly useful tool when it comes to data recovery. According to Statistica, as of 2019, 94 percent of the small-sized organizations who were surveyed worldwide claimed that they had used the cloud for data storage or backup.
  • A study by IBM on data recovery planning, including the cost and frequency of data breaches, showed a decrease in costs by more than 30 percent in organizations that embrace proactive recovery programs. The research shows that organizations who invest in automated disaster recovery have an operational edge over those without. They also maintain their business reputation and financial success, which is crucial for growth.
  • Disaster recovery planning is one of the most important aspects of protecting your business. But how often do you actually test your disaster recovery plan? A report by Statistica reveals that only 35 percent of respondents stated that their company tested its disaster recovery plan on a quarterly basis as of 2019.
  • A  report by UniTrends found that cloud-based Disaster Recovery-as-a-Software (DRaaS) will be used by 59 percent of businesses by 2021. Currently, 36 percent of businesses use this, and a further 23 percent plan to add the technology within the next year.

The above statistics are a wake-up call for many businesses. Having a well-designed and effectively maintained disaster recovery plan in place will substantially increase your ability to recover lost data, returning you back into normal operations as quickly with minimal business disruption.

SystemsNet is the trusted choice for complete network solutions. With almost 20 years in business, they’ve built a reputation as an industry leader and provide reliable services that meet your needs with tailored plans for any budget. Contact us for more information on our complete line of disaster recovery solutions for your business.

Business Continuity Tips for Solopreneurs

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Solopreneur using a laptop to research for her business' backup recovery plan

Researching for your business’ backup recovery plan.

Business continuity is what keeps your company running even when interruptions occur and disaster strikes. From holidays to natural disasters, your brand needs to remain available and functional at all times. Here in the digital era, customers expect 24/7 access and support. For larger businesses, this type of continuity is par for the course. But for solopreneurs and small businesses, it can be tough to keep your business online and rolling 100% of the time.

Fortunately, there are plenty of tools and services you can implement to automate your business process and protect yourself from business interruptions.

Conduct Business on the Cloud

The cloud is the single most useful development for small and solo-run businesses today. Cloud services and data storage make it much more difficult for information to be lost or for your online services to go offline. A website server on the cloud will serve itself more efficiently to customers across the globe and cloud-based services will be more consistently available to you and your customers.

The more you can do on the cloud, the better. Just be sure you are working with high-quality and cyber-secure cloud partners.

Customer Self-Service Technology

Online self-service has finally put the 24/7 into small business availability. While you may need to sleep and attend to personal matters, your customers can still attend to their own needs through online tools. A good search feature and information database (or just a well-written FAQ) page can minimize your customer’s need for direct live assistance, while a smooth e-commerce site can continue taking in orders even when you the business owner are offline.

Stay Flexible with Co-Working Spaces

Being a solo business owner can mean needing to check in on business no matter where you are – or if there’s an office available. When you’re traveling, your computer breaks, your internet is interrupted, or your home office is down for maintenance; remember that there are always co-working spaces available in every city. There you can find all the office equipment and high-speed internet connection you may need. With co-working spaces, you can continue to conduct business when your normal office access is interrupted.

Partner with Department Outsourcing

Solopreneurs and many small businesses don’t have the staff to provide full departmental services. You don’t have a customer service call center, an accounting and legal department, or a marketing team. Fortunately, the outsourcing industry was designed for entrepreneurs to hire on any department they need for however long the work is needed. While your business is growing from the ground up, you can achieve full-service business continuity by partnering with outsourced department services.

Always Have a Backup-Recovery Plan

Last but certainly not least is backup recovery. A backup recovery plan is a two-prong method to ensure your digital assets are never at risk of being lost or ransomed from you. Take regular (daily/weekly/monthly) backups of your work computer(s) and all your files. Archive these backups and develop a quick-engaging plan to deploy these backups as needed. Whether data is lost to encrypting ransomware, an error in your server, or an accidental tap of the ‘delete’ key, you can always ‘reload from save with a well-built backup and recovery plan.

Running a business on your own is exhilarating, challenging, and also impossible for one person to do 24/7. Fortunately, there are business services available to expand your one-person team with outsourcing, cloud access, automation, and even co-working spaces if your normal business location is disrupted. Most importantly, know when to reach out and outsource at the right times. Here at SystemsNet, we are proud to offer IT services to small and medium businesses and would be proud to be your go-to source for IT support for your solo business. Contact us today to start talking about your company’s IT needs.

How a BDR (Backup Disaster Recovery) Plan Works for You

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Cyber security and data network protection concept showing a business owner using her laptop computer for checking her business' data protection and security back-up plans.

Cyber security and network protection is critical for any business

What happens when your tech stack is put at risk? Businesses everywhere are now built on their technological assets. Servers, data, work software, and customer data are all essential before you even begin with websites, apps, and online security. This creates an incredible infrastructure of data. Data that must be protected and data that is relied on. So what do you do when something goes terribly wrong?

Many disasters can befall a company’s servers, network, or tech stack. But what do you do when data is lost or at risk? That is what a BDR plan helps you to deal with. But it can be difficult to visualize where a BDR would be useful unless you can grasp the disasters themselves. Today, we are highlighting three common disasters and how BDR can help you fully recover your business in the face of these disasters.

1) When You’ve Been Hacked

Hacking is the number one threat to modern business data and infrastructure. More than natural disasters, more than chance data corruption, even more than employee mistakes. Hackers are everywhere, there are more every year, and they share tactics to target modern businesses. There are many types of hack, the most notorious being the Ransomware attack. Ransomware and other malware is designed to invade a computer or a network then wreak havoc.

Once you become aware that there is a hack, it becomes necessary to root out every scrap of malicious code and program in your network.  This can be a near-impossible hunt for barbs left behind by poisonous programs – unless you have a BDR plan saved for your system.

With a complete backup and a recovery plan to implement it, you don’t have to search out every last bit of malware. You can nuke-and-pave your entire network to eliminate the malware without any loss at all. After resetting your hardware, a backup allows you to fully restore your system, your data, and even your specific installations and configurations for a fully malware-free system. This is the ultimate way thumb your nose at hackers, denying them both disruption and harvested data all at once.

2) Damaged by a Natural Disaster

Natural disasters are even less avoidable than getting hacked.  Sometimes, a large storm or event hits your region and there is very little that any local business can do to prevent the kind of damage that can happen. Basements flood. Buildings collapse. Fires can burn through server banks. Natural disasters can desolate a business’s hardware and, in turn much of their technological infrastructure. With damaged servers, data can be lost. With damaged offices, an entire network and workflow infrastructure can be taken out.

How does backup disaster recovery help you? The answer is that BDR can also be used to rebuild your business from the ground up. Replacing one computer or every physical device in an all-new office, a cloud-stored backup with a recovery plan means that you can fully restore your tech-stack on any working hardware. If your insurance covers an all-new office and devices, your BDR can then upload your entire digital infrastructure back into place.

This is the true spirit of business continuity.

3) Corrupted Software Updates and Lost Data

Finally, there is corrupted and lost data, the original reason why BDR plans were designed for modern businesses. Software can corrupt when updated – destroying the tech stack and all related data – or even just a section. This is a common enough problem that regular backups are the known solution. At the same time, common employee errors can occasionally cause massive data loss. Mis-clicks or tapping the ‘delete’ button at just the wrong time can cause seemingly irrevocable data loss and other damage. Fortunately, a good backup can restore some or all of your data so that no single temporary mistake becomes catastrophic to the company or even to the employee.

 

How does BDR help your business? Backup disaster recovery plans can save you from malware, data corruption, mistakes, and natural disasters With these heavy-hitters at the top of the list, no doubt any business can think of a dozen more smaller disasters that a good backup and a comprehensive recovery plan can do to ensure business continuity. Contact us today to consult on the best BDR plan for your company.

What Will Happen If I Do Not Have A Backup Disaster Recovery (BDR)?

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A folder containing emergency/disaster recovery plans

Life is unpredictable. Backup Disaster Recovery (BDR) plans are essential.

Backup and Disaster Recovery is an archiving solution that is used to retrieve information that could have possibly been corrupted, lost, or accidentally deleted. Your Backup and Disaster Recovery Plan will instantly become your insurance policy against data breaches and data losses.

If you are operating a small business, your business will be at a higher risk of closing its doors completely within less than a year after the data breach or data loss.

On the other hand, if you are operating a mid-sized business or a large business, you will be at a greater risk of being one of the targets of cyber criminals because of the significant amount of data you possess. Cyber criminals will also target larger businesses because of the financial resources they have to pay high ransoms.

If you instantly lose access to your data, applications, and documents, it does not have to lead to the end of your business. With the right backup and disaster recovery plan, you can significantly reduce your downtime and get your business running again. What can happen to your business if you do not have a reliable Backup and Disaster Recovery plan?

Significant Downtime

We understand it can be difficult to understand the real cost of downtime for your business. Did you know the average cost of downtime to a small business can exceed $8,000? While two of the things you will lose during the downtime are efficiency and productivity, they are not the only things you will lose.

You will also lose a significant amount of data that may have already landed in the hands of the wrong people. You will spend a significant amount of time trying to recover data and trying to get your business operating again.

The Loss of Data

There is more than one cause of data loss. If you do not have a Backup and Disaster Recovery(BDR) plan in place, the data you lost may not ever be recovered. If you suffer a permanent data loss, the amount of data you lost could be worth between $150 to $250 per record. That is certainly a significant amount of money that you will lose once you calculate how many data records have been lost.

The End of Your Business

It is important for you to have an understanding of how important the value of eliminating risks. As mentioned earlier, if you operate a small business, the loss of data or a data breach can lead to the end of your business. Unfortunately, over 50 percent of small businesses that suffer from data losses and data breaches will never recover.

Unfortunately, the loss of data will lead to more than just the loss of money, It will be extremely difficult for your current customers and clients to trust your business. It will also be difficult for potential customers and clients to give your business a chance after learning about the significant data loss or data breach you experienced.

As we have witnessed this year, natural disasters can happen at any time and in any location. Natural disasters can completely alter the state of any business, regardless of the size. It is also important to be vigilant of cyber criminals who can attack at any time. Natural disasters, malware, ransomware attacks are happening every year, and you have to understand that these disasters and attacks can lead to irreversible damage to your business.

You need to have a backup and disaster recovery plan in place or you can find yourself in a difficult position to recover. If you do not want to put the current state of your business and the future state of your business in jeopardy, please do not hesitate to contact SystemsNet for more information on how you can implement an effective BDR plan.