By Tim LaPean, SCS Infrastructure Consultant
Your business might be avoiding an important question. Maybe because of a lack of information, fear of the answer or a lack of time and resources. Yet, every business needs an answer to this critical question: “If the worst happens, and all of my data is destroyed, will my business survive?” Here’s the deal – it’s not a question of if a system failure will occur or disaster will strike, it’s a question of when. It’s time to stop avoiding that question!
If your answer was, “No” or, “I have no clue,” you’re likely not alone. Answering the survival question with a “yes” requires advanced planning and preparation before disaster strikes. Research cited from a study by the Gartner Group and the University of Texas revealed that 43%of companies that were hit by a “major data loss” closed their doors immediately. An additional 51% of companies closed their doors within two years. This leaves a mere 6% survival rate for companies that have suffered a major data loss.
What can you do to survive a system failure?
The trick to surviving a disaster isn’t a trick at all. When a company prepares in advance by backing up all of its data and making sure copies of the backups are taken to safe offsite locations, the data can be recovered and business can continue as usual. Then if a disaster occurs, whether it is a system failure, fire or major flood, the result will not be a major data loss.
There are many options when it comes to backing up data. Onsite systems back up to a disk, then copy it to tapes or other media for transport offsite. Others back up data directly to offsite data centers (aka The Cloud). There are also custom options that offer even more flexibility.
As an example, one of our clients has more than 35 servers, both physical and virtual, and had no backups whatsoever. Within two weeks, we were able to deploy a solution that provided reliable backups for every system, every night and sent copies of those backups offsite weekly. With the system that was implemented, there are options to expand to live cloud backups in the future should the client choose to go in that direction.
While backup and recovery protects you against disasters, it can also be a huge help with day-to-day operations. Ever accidentally delete a file you meant to keep? Ever pressed the wrong button and lost a day of work? How about accidentally deleting that very important email? With a backup system that is properly configured, these files and emails can be recovered quickly and easily by either the user themselves or the IT department.
Now that you have the knowledge to get your system backed up, it’s time to take the first step toward protecting your business. Contact us today to learn more.