Hardware failures, bad patches, virus infections, malicious attacks, security vulnerabilities, and ransomware attacks are only a few of the many examples of outside forces that can interrupt IT functions. Unfortunately, many businesses find themselves caught off guard when an event happens, and they realize too late that they should have been more prepared.
Ransomware alone has wreaked havoc with businesses across the globe. According to “Barkly”, in the year 2016, nearly 50% of organizations were hit with ransomware. It’s also reported that 209 Million dollars in ransoms were paid in Q1 of 2016 alone. Read more: https://blog.barkly.com/ransomware-statistics-2016.
The money paid in ransoms is only a portion of the cost to businesses, however. Downtime is very expensive and can include loss of orders, service interruption, and client frustrations. According to the Information Technology Industry Council (ITIC), for large organizations, even an hour of downtime can cost $100,000 or more: https://itic-corp.com/blog/2016/08/cost-of-hourly-downtime-soars-81-of-enterprises-say-it-exceeds-300k-on-average/. The year 2017 has seen these numbers grow exponentially, and experts agree the trend will continue.
Are you prepared for a disaster? If your IT infrastructure goes down, how will you carry on normal business functions? Many businesses put off disaster recovery planning for a number of reasons. Some do it because they think it’s unlikely they will ever need it. Others feel overwhelmed by the thought of it. And yet others just can’t find the time to make it a priority with all the day-to-day tasks that pile up on their desks.
Disaster Recovery Preparedness is no longer the huge undertaking it once was.
Off-site replication is the underlying component to any successful, off-site disaster recovery plan. In many cases, the adoption of virtualization combined with SAN storage can position an organization for off-site replication right out of the box.
Using a simple dedicated data circuit or VPN to a designated disaster recovery site, organizations can configure data replication for off-site preparedness. Numerous technologies exist for Data Replication and recovery; each designed for a specific environment and desired RPO (recovery point objective). Some even allow server replication regardless of whether the servers are physical or virtual.
With current technologies and product offerings, it is possible to develop a Disaster Recovery (DR) plan for almost any budget. Disaster recovery planning is the key to success; make sure to get started if you haven’t already! Contact MA Polce for assistance in creating the right DR plan for your business today.
