Data Disaster and Recovery

With Spring officially here and Summer on the way, many business owners in our home state of Texas will spend more time watching the skies and weather reports. We’ve already seen devastating tornadoes in multiple states, and hurricane season is on the way. Nasty weather means power outages and power surges that can impact business uptime.?

Without a superior data backup and disaster recovery plan, your business will grind to a halt in the event of a catastrophe.?

So, now is a great time to consider the causes of data loss and the steps you can take to protect your business. Of course, not all threats are weather-related, and it’s important to understand which safety measures cover various circumstances.?

The Causes of Data Loss?

Human error??

Mistakes happen and human error is one of the most common causes of data loss in small businesses. It can happen when employees accidentally delete important files, overwrite data, or fail to save changes.??

Training your employees to handle sensitive data responsibly can prevent many mistakes, but never assume it will prevent all of them. A fast and reliable data backup and recovery solution will prevent one person from causing huge losses for the whole business?

Hardware failure??

Hard drives, servers, and other hardware components can fail due to wear and tear, power surges, or other issues. Fortunately, hard drive failure rates tend to be stable and predictable. However, workplace conditions do contribute to failure. A computer on a shop floor won’t last as long as an office computer.??

?A plan for cycling out your old machines is essential to prevent downtime due to hardware failure. The overall cost of replacing hardware is always less if you plan. Again, a fast and reliable backup and recovery system can prevent hardware failure leading to huge losses.?

Malware and cyberattacks??

Malware and cyberattacks can cripple a small business. Malware can infect a computer and steal or corrupt data, while cyberattacks can result in data breaches and theft of sensitive information. A strong backup and recovery solution will clean data backups before restoring, to ensure that no malware or viruses remain. Your IT support may not be able to handle this, and you need to know that you can get all your data back in the event of an infection.

Natural disasters:?

Tornados, hurricanes, floods, fires, and burst pipes can also cause data loss in small businesses. Many businesses do not utilize offsite backup. This often happens when they outsource their IT Support, and the company doesn’t tell them about their vulnerabilities.?

?You might be paying for “backup,” but all you’re really getting is a data drive plugged into your server. What good is that in a natural disaster? True backup is a more complex process needing regular management and cloud storage.?

Cloud Data Loss??

Most businesses are using cloud data storage these days. Users often assume they are totally protected from data loss. It’s true that cloud services can prevent you from losing data to hardware failure or natural disaster, but you can still lose cloud data in other ways. While cloud data services are unlikely to lose your data, they haven’t promised to protect it from your own mistakes. And if a bad actor such as a cybercriminal or angry employee manages to get access, the cloud service won’t be able to restore it.?

Why Data Loss is so Serious?

Data loss is a serious problem because many businesses do not recover. And many small business leaders are depending on IT providers who haven’t considered every angle of a data loss event.?

29% of businesses that lose data lose revenue, and nearly 40% lose more than 20 percent of total revenues. Nearly a quarter of these businesses lose significant business opportunities because they couldn't recover fast enough. Over 20% of businesses that lose data, lose customers, and 40 percent of those companies lose more than 20% of their customers.?

Here's the sad part - They thought it couldn't happen to them because they were paying for backup.?

But here's some insider information: Numerous providers keep their costs down by handling your data with the bare minimum of care.?

Who is responsible for Data Backup?

Many companies depend on their internal staff. Sadly, IT managers and employees don’t follow proper backup procedures because they are busy fighting other fires.?

For instance, only 33% of IT managers perform data backups at the recommended rate, leaving gaps that could result in significant losses. Furthermore, only 12% of workers use the right methods to resume operations quickly in the event of data loss.?

At DatCom, we recognized these problems years ago and implemented solutions for our clients that give them confidence. If you’re looking for peace of mind about your data backup and recovery plan, you can learn more, here.?