Data loss is one of the biggest fears you might face as a business owner. That’s why having a reliable backup and restore disaster recovery plan is essential for every business and organization. In the article, we will have a closer look at backup and disaster recovery plans and why you would need them.
What is the Difference Between Backups and a Disaster Recovery plan?
Backups and disaster recovery plans are both practices to protect your business from data loss due to unforeseen incidents like theft, malware attack, hardware failure, or natural disasters. However, the two practices are considered different from each other.
Backup is having an extra copy of the data, stored on your system, on another storage drive. This drive could be a physical drive or a virtual private one (cloud). Doing backups on a regular basis helps retrieve any missing data in the future. Moreover, having a data backup is not enough to ensure that your business will keep running as it should be at the event of disasters. Therefore, every small business should possess what is called a Disaster Recovery plan.
Disaster recovery is a step-by-step guide or plan whose aim is to respond to data loss incidents while keeping all critical functions running smoothly in the event of disaster occurrence. This plan can include switching to a different set of servers or Storage KVM VPS devices until your data center returns back to functioning normally.
What are the deployment options for backup and restore disaster recovery plans?
There are deployment options for backup and restore disaster recovery plans:
Cloud-Based
The usage of cloud-based backup and restore disaster recovery plans is becoming increasingly popular among businesses and organizations. Selecting the cloud-based backup option makes you avoid all the expenses associated with building an infrastructure to store your data and manage a disaster recovery plan. Moreover, having your data stored on a cloud is definitely a better option in the event of a regional disaster.
Onsite
Sometimes, businesses might prefer keeping the backup and restore disaster recovery process on premises only as it can be considered a faster option in recovery. However, a recovery plan depending on the on-site environment only might face a huge failure in the event of a natural disaster or power outage. That’s why it’s always preferred to use a hybrid deployment plan for disaster recovery.
Why do you need data backup and disaster recovery plans?
you need data backup and disaster recovery plans for:
Disasters
The unforeseen occurrence of natural disasters can make you lose your data-holding infrastructure. Storms, fires, earthquakes, or floods can result in an irreversible loss of data which can definitely increase your losses due to prolonged downtime and information loss. That’s why it’s of high importance to have several types of backup options for your business including on-site, off-site, and cloud backup.
Unintentional Error
It’s actually very common to have an important file unintentionally deleted by one of your employees which can give your entire business a very hard time. Therefore, utilizing a good disaster recovery plan should also include doing backups on a regular basis. This will help your IT team to restore the missing files while accessing the backup at specific points.
Hard Drive Damage
Damage to your hardware can happen due to several reasons that you might not be able to expect sometimes. Things like overheating, water damage, electric power surge, or exposure to a strong magnetic field can easily result in damaging your hard drives and unfortunate loss of data. Therefore, it’s highly recommended to have cloud hosting backup to neutralize any loss of data due to hardware failure.
Decrease the damage of Cyber Attacks
Having a backup and restore disaster recovery plan can help you lessen the effects of ransomware attacks on your system. One of the main characteristics of malware attacks is that they can limit your access to your system. Moreover, the attack can result in encrypting your files and locking your computers. That’s why having a disaster recovery plan is essential to give access to your own data.
Running a successful business is not only about sales or revenues but it’s also about implementing effective updated measures in cybersecurity and backup and restoring disaster recovery plans to protect customers’ information.
Data Retrieval from Lost Devices
Everyone understands how annoying losing your laptop can be. Heaps of data that was a result of long working hours can be lost in a glimpse because you left your device unattended at a coffee shop or the airport. However, implementing backup and restoring disaster recovery can help you get through the grief of losing your device easily.
Business Credibility and Reputation
Losing data is not only affecting your infrastructure, but it also affects your reputation amongst customers. Prolonged downtime due to data loss can definitely make your customers switch to another competitor.
Also, it can be very hard in the future to attack new customers as your credibility got affected by previous incidents. Therefore, the sooner you are able to retrieve your lost data, the more successful your business is with regard to customer retention and continuity.
Eventually, utilizing backup and restore disaster recovery plans is very essential for your business and will make you avoid uncountable losses. Don’t hesitate to use it now.