Your data backups are no longer enough

TORONTO - Dec. 8, 2016 - PRLog -- Many companies understand the importance of regular backups however your data backups are no longer enough. Time to protect your business.

Many organizations that specialize in data management and disaster recovery understand backing up is no longer enough and there must be a more robust disaster recovery plan in place to protect organizations.

Enterprises are expected to be up and running 24/7/365 as downtime is no longer tolerated in today's fast-paced world plus there is a lot of technology out there that can complete your disaster recovery plan and business continuity process.

A recent study from an information technology company that develops backup, disaster recovery and virtualization management software for VMware and Hyper-V virtual environments showed some interesting numbers. Over 84 per cent of CIOs are unable to meet the expectations of constant availability and admit that it is costing them up to $16 million a year. The study also showed downtime increased in 2015, with companies experiencing an average of 15 unplanned downtime events, compared to 13 events in 2014.

Now larger organizations have the luxury of having a fulltime CIO on staff, for the small and midsize business (SMB), it's a complete different ball game.  It is extremely important they work with a managed IT services provider or IT consultant to develop a complete disaster recovery plan since your data backups in no longer enough.

Most technology leaders are trying to drive backup awareness amongst the business community as it is extremely important.  Your data backups in no longer enough for today's business landscape and availability is expected.

Why you need to perform a disaster recovery and business continuity assessment?

This sounds more complicated than it is but it is time well invested and can be simple if you bring your management to the table. There are many different approaches to disaster recovery and business continuity assessment but will base this on The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) (http://csrc.nist.gov/) as this is a good base to build on to protect your organization.

As part of your disaster recovery and business continuity assessment, you will need to address the following:

• Develop the contingency planning policy statement.
• Conduct the BIA (business impact analysis).
• Identify preventive controls.
• Develop recovery strategies.
• Develop an IT contingency plan.
• Test the plan, train employees, and hold exercises.
• Maintain the plan.

If a disaster suddenly strikes, your disaster recovery and business continuity assessment will protect to from a disaster and help with the continuance of critical business functions for a predetermined period. In other words, the estimated outage might force the declaration of a disaster.

Your data backups are no longer enough but if you perform a disaster recovery and business continuity assessment, you will have your business covered and protected.

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