Organizations are increasingly digital. Not only do they have data stored on on-premise infrastructure, but more often than not, they’re operating across public and private cloud and working with multiple service providers. While this complexity is advancing how organizations do business, it also makes networks that much more susceptible to downtime – whether that’s because of human error or security issues.
Disaster recovery plans are a critical part in mitigating and bouncing back after inevitable downtime. But a recent study shows as many as 21% of small and medium businesses don’t have disaster recovery or data backup solutions in place. The reasons why vary – some organizations simply don’t know where to start or that they should even have a DR plan in place. Other organizations don’t believe the investment is worth the return or that they’d ever have an issue that would require them to restore environments and data.
These are all myths.
Every organization today has information that’s important (and could be a target for cyber attackers), so not putting the necessary solutions and plans in place for backup or disaster recovery has the potential to be catastrophic.
If you’re unsure of where to start, here are three key considerations:
Selecting the right provider: Every business has its own unique needs – just like every provider is unique in its technologies, services and more. Organizations should ensure that when selecting a provider, they look for a partner that can accommodate specific business requirements and environment functionality – and that those needs can change as business needs do.
Understanding the difference between backup and disaster recovery: Many organizations discuss backup and disaster recovery interchangeably, but where companies choose to run production can impact data loss and downtime. Having separate and clear plans for backup and disaster recovery can ensure processes work seamlessly upon failure.
Test, test, test: Systems and services rarely (read: never) ‘just’ work when you need them to. The most successful disaster recovery plans are continually tested, changed and updated as environments and infrastructure evolve, and are properly communicated to all critical staff who are involved.
Are you one of the more than 20% of SMBs who haven’t adopted a disaster recovery solution? If so, Markley can help. Markley Group offers a range of disaster recovery and backup offerings that reduce the time and effort it takes to protect data. For example, Markley’s disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS) solution, powered by Zerto, ensures critical infrastructure remains operational no matter the circumstances.
To learn more about disaster recovery with Markley for on premise or virtual infrastructure, connect with our team of experts at info@markleygroup.com.
