It’s estimated that 20 percent of all companies will suffer a flood, fire, software or hardware disaster, power failure or terrorism in the coming year. Of these affected companies, 80 percent will fail within a year and 43 percent will never open their doors again.
These statistics are pretty shocking, and enough for some business owners to begin creating and implementing a disaster recovery plan. However, if you still aren’t convinced this is an investment you need to make, keep reading.
Here you can learn several compelling reasons to implement a disaster recovery plan for your business right away.
1. Protection from an Array of Threats
Disaster is a general term that can mean anything from the loss of data due to a hack or breach, to the loss of business operations due to a flood or fire. When there are business assets, there is the risk for disaster to strike.
When you implement a disaster recovery plan, you will have planned for all possible issues, and have the tools and resources in place to help get your business up and running quickly.
When it comes to data, the threats are greater than ever before. After all, your data is an invaluable business asset. This makes it vulnerable to a wide array of threats.
Some of the biggest threats to your business data include:
- Natural disasters
- Technical threats
- Human threats
- Physical device damage
With data losses (even small ones affecting under 100 files) costing between $18,000 and $36,000, protection is not an option. There’s a very good chance that your business would not be able to survive this type of loss.
2. Your Business is Only as Strong as its Weakest Link
It doesn’t matter how strong your business is, how much your employees know, or anything else about your business that you may think is top-notch. The fact is, your business is only as strong as its weakest link.
Remember, there is no business that is completely immune to an IT disaster. However, there are steps you can take to prevent them, or recover quickly. However, if you don’t have a disaster recovery plan in place, this recovery is going to be virtually impossible.
3. You May be Required by Law to Have a Plan in Place
There are some companies that are required by law to have some type of disaster recovery plan in place. One example is HIPAA, which requires disaster recovery planning according to their security rule. Companies subject to HIPAA regulations must have:
- Disaster recovery plan
- Data backup plan
- Testing and revision procedures
- Emergency recovery plan
- Data criticality and applications analysis
While many companies adhere to the minimum requirements, this is often not enough. Meeting minimum requirements that have been set still set companies up for a disaster.
4. Security Measures Often Fail
Even the strongest and reliable security measures may fail. If this happens, your business is then at risk. This is especially true when it comes to your business network.
For example, ransomware viruses will hold your data and exchange it for a cash payment. However, if you hand of the ransom, there’s no guarantee that your data will be returned.
A better option is to use the proper backup methods as part of your disaster recovery plan. You can store your data in the cloud where you can access uninfected versions. This eliminates the power a hacker has.
5. Customers Expect Perfection
Today, it’s necessary for companies to be more competitive, transparent, and accountable than ever before. With this increased competition, customers are privy to better service and lower prices, but companies have to deal with less forgiving customers.
The majority of people using the services of a company are going to expect perfection. That’s because they know if you can’t provide this, the competition is going to work hard to earn their business.
You need to make sure you aren’t giving your customers a reason to go to the competition, such as a preventable issue like an outage in service.
6. Outages Happen
In 2014, one out of every three companies declared some type of disaster. This number continues to go up year after year.
You have to proactively plan for downtime, rather than being reactive when it occurs. The fact is, outages are inevitable, even if you have managed to avoid disaster up to this point.
With customers expecting immediate access and personalized experiences, you need to ensure the proper plan and resources are in place to help you prevent and even mitigate the occurrence of outages.
7. Loss of Productivity
If you rely on data in your organization for running your business, then you are going to see a significant loss of productivity if data is lost. Also, the longer your data is gone, the longer your employees are unable to do their job.
If this continues on, your profits may suffer. Don’t let this happen by having a disaster recovery plan in place.
Creating a Disaster Recovery Plan is a Must for All Businesses
Regardless of your industry, or the size of your business, having a disaster recovery plan is a must. This can help protect your business from significant losses while keeping customers happy and content.
You can’t leave your business to chance. You have to take steps to protect what you have built, or you may be at risk of losing it all.
If you are unsure how to begin the process of implementing this disaster recovery plan, then contact us today. Our team of professionals can provide you with full IT solutions to protect your company and help you avoid disaster situations.
