Does Your Business Have A Disaster Recovery Plan?

The digitalization of data sparked a revolutionary business environment which continues to evolve. However, businesses are also more vulnerable now that everything is accessible online. The risk of losing your precious data has never been greater. Apart from taking security measures to prevent data loss, businesses are also advised to have a disaster recovery plan.

What Is A Disaster Recovery Plan?

Unexpected occurrences such as natural disasters, cyber attacks, and human error can compromise your data and affect your business operations. A disaster recovery plan (DRP) ensures your company’s timely and proper response to such events so you can lessen their impact. Unlike cyber security which protects data, disaster recovery is a continuity plan that deals with the consequences of data loss.

DRP is divided into two phases – data backup and recovery. Each phase is comprised of solutions that perform the following functions:

• Keep your business running in the event of data loss
• Significant recovery from setbacks

5 Reasons Why You Need Disaster Recovery

Businesses that don’t have a DRP are usually unaware of its benefits. So we’re giving you five good reasons why should have one in place.

1. Keeps your data safe from disasters

Natural disasters can happen without warning. Floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, and other events can ruin the infrastructure where your data is stored. You run the risk of permanent data loss and may have to shut down your business.

A recovery plan secures backups of your data in a separate location from your office. When disaster strikes, you can retrieve copies of the original data that’s been lost.

2. Prevents downtime during system failure

No matter how advanced your technology is, expect to encounter issues along the way. Software and hardware problems may cause your systems to crash and either damage your data or render them inaccessible.

Disaster recovery prevents downtime should these systems fail. It promotes seamless data access until issues are resolved.

3. Protects your customers

Customers entrust businesses with all sorts of personal information. If your business model requires you to gather their complete name, home address, email, and other sensitive information, you risk losing this data to cyber attacks.

You don’t want to compromise your customers in any way. Otherwise, you might lose their trust and your business. A disaster recovery plan protects their data and your brand reputation.

4. Reduces incidences of human error

Employees make mistakes too. They might accidentally delete or alter your data and cause setbacks in normal operations. Or they could unknowingly expose your data to security risks and leave them vulnerable to cyber crimes.

Your DRP provider can train and educate your workers on data security and disaster preparedness. Or they could create a plan of action that enables you to address these internal problems.

5. Lessen the impact of cyber attacks

Cybersecurity isn’t 100% foolproof. You could try to meet the best standards and still lose your data to an attack. Its effects are serious and can range from operational delays to ultimately crippling your business.

Disaster recovery lessens the impact of a successful cyber attack. It gives you the chance to continue business as usual.