As technology and business become more integrated and we rely on digital services even more, it is inevitable that one day things will stop, and sometimes without warning. In the fast-changing and competitive markets SMEs operate in, no business can afford downtime.
Equipment failure, cyber-attacks, data theft, and natural disasters are a few incident types on a long list of scenarios that will impact businesses, and the likelihood is when rather than if, they should occur. In any situation where business operations become disrupted the first thing you think of is: ‘How do we get back to normal?’ and where digital services like IT systems and data are concerned the route back to business-as-usual can prove difficult.
Backing up your systems and data can protect your business from disruption but not on its own, and a well designed and practiced Disaster Recovery plan is useless without data backups. At Join IT we prepare all our clients for the worst-case scenarios and teach that Backups and Disaster Recovery go together as one.
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Think about Backups and Disaster Recovery like a Lifeboat. The Backups are the boat itself and a Disaster Recovery plan is the engine, or the sails. In a disaster your business will need that Lifeboat.
Failing to prepare in business means you’re almost certainly destined for failure, and some alarming statistics show that most businesses in the UK are unprepared. [Source: www.sysgroup.com].
- 75% of small businesses have no disaster recovery plan objective in place.
- 93% of companies without Disaster Recovery who suffer a major data disaster are out of business within one year.
- Hardware failures cause 45% of total unplanned downtime. This is followed by the loss of power (35%), software failure (34%), data corruption (24%), external security breaches (23%), and accidental user error (20%).
- 96% of companies with a trusted backup and disaster recovery plan were able to survive ransomware attacks.
Statistics shows that a very high number of businesses who suffer a Cyber-attack were able to recover and survive because of their backups. We work tirelessly to ensure all our customers sit nicely within that 96%.
WHAT ARE BACKUPS?
Backing up data put simply is copying files from one location to another. The purpose of this is to create a copy for use if the original is deleted, lost, or changed irreversibly. Backups can occur on an hourly, daily or on a weekly basis to either a hard drive in your office or off-site to the Cloud. Most small businesses believe they ‘backup’ in some form or another even if it is a simple as copying files to a USB stick.
WHAT IS DISASTER RECOVERY?
Disaster recovery or ‘DR’ in IT terms is the process or set of plans to recover services following an incident or disaster. As an example, if your business suffered a power failure at your primary site within your disaster recovery plan would be steps to recover services at another site or provide access for staff to work from home or access services over the internet or a Cloud solution.
Similarly, if your business suffered a Cyber-attack your disaster recovery plan would outline steps to recover critical files and application data from backups. A well-designed disaster recovery plan would highlight critical data and the length of time to recover from a recent backup.
BONUS: WHAT IS DATA PROTECTION?
Most business owners are unaware to all the controls within the Data Protection act and the more complex GDPR. Data protection is the process of safeguarding important data from corruption, compromise, or loss of providing the capability to restore the data to a functional state should something happen to render the data inaccessible or unusable.
Put simply, as a business you are responsible for the data you possess, process, and control. In modern times data has more value in certain industries than currency, and the aim of hacker and cyber thieves is to steal this data for criminal purposes.
Any business that lacks effective controls, backup and disaster recovery strategies for data is at risk of heavy punishment and fines if breached.
OUR BACKUP & DISASTER RECOVERY SERVICES EXPLAINED.
1. BACKUP-AS-A-SERVICE (BAAS): Bespoke to your exact requirements. Your critical files and data are replicated to a secure location in the Cloud and using advanced software your data is security protected and made available quickly for recovery.
Main benefit: Recover data fast and to anywhere using our secure Cloud backup service. Reduced risk opposed to keeping backups on-site.
2. DISASTER RECOVERY-AS-A-SERVICE (DRAAS): Complete protection against potential disasters. Tailored to meet your exact business requirements our dynamic recovery solutions will recover your critical on-site services to our managed Cloud environment.
Main benefit: Recover your critical business functions in hours rather than days.
3. MICROSOFT 365 & AZURE BACKUP: Microsoft’s suite of services enhance your business in many ways, but Microsoft do not provide backups. Whilst your data is secure on their platform protection against data loss and cyber threats is important to ensure continuity of service.
Main benefit: Rapid recovery of deleted emails, files, and core setting for SharePoint, Teams, and OneDrive for Business. Retain emails in compliance storage mode and perform granular recovery of information for legal matters.
BECOME RESILIENT TO BUSINESS DISRUPTION
We design, implement, and operate backups and disaster recovery processes to protect your critical systems and data. Our processes can benefit your business in the following ways:
Rapid restoration of data including documents, emails, and application data. Whether your data is on-site or in the Cloud.
Replicate your critical business infrastructure on premise or in the Cloud.
Regular testing to give you the peace of mind that your recovery strategies are effective.
Keep in compliance with Data Protection and GDPR.
Our team will ensure that your IT systems and data are fully protected and available when you need them, and should a disaster occur small or large you have the capability to respond and remain operational.
GET IN TOUCH
GET TO KNOW YOUR BUSINESS, AND HOW TO KEEP IT OPERATIONAL.
If you’re concerned about the safety of your data and IT infrastructure reach out and we’ll help. Our team are ready to assess and keep you operational. Our IT service review will help you gain clarity on the following Backup and Disaster Recovery questions.
- What data is critical, and where is it stored?
- Who can access the data, and what are the threats?
- How can you backup, and to where? We will identify the best solution for your business.
- How quickly do you need to recover, and what do you need to recover? Assessing your business operations, we will identify critical IT functions and how you can protect those using our DRaaS (Disaster Recovery-as-a-Service) options.
hear from our clients
“We now have a rock-solid IT platform that will scale with our growing business. Our team is now supported with their day-to-day operations by our in-house IT support and managed SOC teams, and our emails issues have been put behind us”
GRAYERS GRAPHICS
“A brand-new site for Twin Wheel has hugely expanded their business and with a scalable IT Infrastructure and implementing digital systems it has revolutionised their services and their ability to serve their customer base.”
TWIN WHEEL LOGISTICS
“Sana’s IT systems are now more easily accessible, secure, and scalable because of deploying Microsoft 365. Emails and data are now accessible across multiple devices, on the move, and collaboration in real-time has enabled the teams to boost productivity meaning they can better serve their customers.”
SANA ELECTRICAL
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