23 Disaster Recovery Statistics You Should Know

This post was originally published at https://invenioit.com/continuity/disaster-recovery-statistics/

Business continuity technologies have come a long way over the past decade, making enterprise-grade data protection accessible to small and mid-sized businesses. But the latest disaster recovery statistics reveal that today's organizations still face costly interruptions, due to a wide range of threats.

As businesses rely more heavily on their data, IT disruptions have become more costly than ever, leading to idle workers, production stoppages and revenue losses. But even beyond IT, incidents like fire and natural disaster remain dangerous threats that put some companies out of business every year.

Here's what the numbers say.

The latest statistics on disaster recovery

1) 54% of companies have experienced prolonged downtime

Operational downtime can happen to any company, at any time. A recent survey found that more than half of businesses have experienced a downtime incident in the past 5 years that lasted at least one full workday (8+ hours). (Source: DataCore)

2) 40%-60% of small businesses never reopen after a disaster

This is one of FEMA's most startling disaster recovery statistics. 40 to 60% of small companies do not survive a major disaster. That includes events such as hurricanes, earthquakes, flooding and even IT incidents, like massive data loss.

These disasters can permanently close the doors of smaller businesses that don't have the resources to sustain a prolonged recovery. (Source: FEMA)

3) 90% fail if they don't reopen quick enough

Recovery after a disaster needs to happen fast, or the consequences could be too great to overcome. Among small companies that survive a disaster, 9 out of 10 fail within the following year if they're unable to restore their operations within 5 days after the disaster.

In other words, the longer the recovery takes, the greater the risks of permanent closure. (Source: FEMA)

4) 1 in 5 companies don't have a disaster recovery plan

Despite the risks, businesses are not taking adequate precautions. FEMA found that 20% of companies have no disaster recovery planning in place.

To prevent and respond to a disaster, every business must have a comprehensive disaster recovery plan (DRP). A DRP helps companies understand the risks that threaten their operations and identify solutions that help to avert disruptions and recover quickly when they occur. (Source: FEMA)

5) Downtime costs between $10K to $5M per hour

This eye-popping statistic illustrates why so many businesses do not survive a disaster. The downtime alone is extremely costly.

Depending on the size of the company, a downtime incident can cost anywhere from $10,000 per hour for smaller businesses to more than $5 million per hour for enterprises. (Source: Datto)

6) Only 2% of businesses recover in less than an hour

Even with the best disaster recovery systems in place, recovery can still take time. For less prepared businesses, it can take days or even weeks, depending on the incident.

Stats highlighted by DataCore.com show that only 2% of surveyed businesses recovered from their last downtime in less than hour. And as we established above, even that single hour can translate into a 5-figure loss. (Source: DataCore)

7) 28% of companies have experienced data loss recently

Data loss is one of the biggest causes of downtime. When data becomes inaccessible—whether due to server failure, ransomware encryption, accidental deletion or other causes—operations can grind to a halt.

And it's extremely common. 28% of companies reported a data-loss event in the previous 12 months. (Source: DataCore)

8) 19% of businesses have had a recent security breach

Data doesn't have to go missing for it to cause a disaster. If hackers break into your systems, it can lead to all kinds of security problems, including data theft, privacy concerns or delivery of harmful malware.

Nearly 1 out of 5 businesses reported having a security breach in the previous 12 months. (Source: DataCore)

9) 43% of data breaches involved small businesses

Data breaches overwhelmingly occur at small businesses: a staggering 43%, according to numbers from Verizon's Data Breach Investigations Report.

There are a few likely reasons for this. Small businesses typically don't invest enough in cybersecurity, and hackers know this. So the vulnerability makes these companies a target. (Source: Verizon)

10) 34% of breaches involved 'internal actors'

Here's another shocker from Verizon's report. Out of 2,013 reported data breaches, a third of them involved internal actors. In other words: the company's own employees.

This is compelling evidence that companies need much stronger security controls on their data, not just for outside threats, but also for their own users. (Source: Verizon)

11) 1 in 3 organizations have been infected by malware

Malware can cause a break in continuity when it corrupts your data, crashes your applications or bricks your servers. A third of surveyed companies reported a malware infection in the previous 5 years. (Source: DataCore)

12) 45% of companies reported downtime from hardware failure

The most common cause of downtime is hardware failure. Server drives, network devices and other components don't last forever. And when they fail, everything stops.

Among companies that reported downtime incidents, 45% of them said it was due to hardware failure. (Source: Veritis)

13) 22% of downtime caused by human error

Human error is another top culprit for downtime. We all make mistakes, and unfortunately, sometimes those blunders can bring down the whole business.

According to figures from Seagate, 22% of downtime events are caused by human errors, including inadvertent data loss, device mismanagement and other accidents. (Source: Seagate)

14) 5% of disruptions caused by natural disaster

Natural disasters get the big headlines, and they are indeed a dangerous threat that every business needs to be prepared for. However, they are not as common as other downtime events.

Seagate found that only 5% of business downtime is caused by natural disasters. (Source: Seagate)

15) 1 in 5 small businesses infected with ransomware

Ransomware has become a leading cause of operational disruption due to the way it spreads laterally across a network, rendering servers and workstations useless.

In the past year, 1 in 5 small to mid-sized businesses (SMBs) have suffered a ransomware attack. (Source: Datto)

16) 200% increase in downtime costs from ransomware

Downtime caused by ransomware can be extremely expensive, in part because it can disrupt the entire organization. And those costs are rising too.

According to figures from Datto, the costs of ransomware-caused downtime have increased by 200% over the past year. (Source: Datto)

17) 37% of SMBs have lost data in the cloud

It's not just your physical on-site servers that you need to worry about. Data loss happens in the cloud too – whether it's at your data center or in SaaS applications, like Office 365 and G Suite.

37% of small to mid-sized businesses reported losing the data in the cloud, due to incidents such as accidental data loss, overwrites, ransomware and other causes. (Source: Backupify)

18) 20% of SMBs experience catastrophic loss every 5 years

For many businesses, it's only a matter of time. Research shows that 1 in 5 small to mid-sized businesses will experience a "major disaster causing loss of critical data" every five years. (Source: Backupify)

19) 93% of companies went bankrupt after prolonged data loss

The longer businesses go without their data, the lower the odds of survival. For small companies especially, an extended loss of critical data is often too difficult to overcome.

93% of businesses that were unable to recover their data within 10 days after the disaster were forced to file for bankruptcy within a year. (Source: Ontech)

20) 70% of small companies say that any data-loss event could hurt the business

Small business owners agree that their data is extremely critical to their operations.

In a survey, 70% of businesses admitted "that a single loss in data could have a significant and costly impact on the business." (Source: Avast)

21) 60% of backups are incomplete

This is one of the more shocking disaster recovery statistics we've seen, though it's not altogether surprising. Too many businesses are relying on outdated backup technology that is notorious for failure.

Figures highlighted by Avast show that 60% of data backups are incomplete. To make matters worse, 50% of backup restores fail. (Source: Avast)

22) 43% of companies experiencing major data loss go out of business if they have no disaster recovery plan

Above, we mentioned how 20% of businesses have no DRP or business continuity plan. This follow-up statistic illustrates why that's so dangerous.

43% of companies that experience a major data loss event go out of business if they don't have any recovery planning in place. (Source: Avast)

23) 96% of businesses with a disaster recovery solution in place fully recover operations

We end with a more hopeful statistic. 96% of businesses are able to fully restore their operations after a data-loss incident if they have disaster recovery solutions in place.

It's proof that good data backups and recovery planning are extremely effective, when you use the right systems. (Source: PheonixNap)