According to a recent study from Security Week, the loss of data for enterprise businesses has increased by more than 400% in just the past 2 years. That same study indicated that business data loss through unanticipated disasters, both natural and man-made, is accelerating. Unfortunately, many small and medium-size businesses incorrectly assume that their companies are not at risk, and that is potentially a big problem.
Many Businesses Are Unprepared
Because they assume their companies are immune to both data breaches and natural disasters, more than 40% of businesses have no documented disaster recovery strategy or plan. That can be an extremely costly mistake. For example, businesses forced to close following a major storm lose on average $3,000 a day (according to Business Insider). Given these unsustainable costs, the question for business is not whether they need a disaster recovery plan, but what plan is best for their business.
Enter Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS)
An increasing number for forward-leaning businesses are turning to a flexible and scalable cloud solution to better manage the possibility of a disaster: Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS). Tech Target defines DRaas as follows:
“Disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS) is replication and hosting of physical or virtual servers by a third party to provide failover in the event of a man-made or natural catastrophe. Typically, DRaaS requirements and expectations are documented in a service-level agreement (SLA) and the third-party vendor provides failover to a cloud computing environment, either through a contract or on a pay-per-use basis.”
Why DRaaS Is the Right Solution for Small and Medium-Size Businesses
For many small and medium-size businesses, DRaaS is both less costly and more effective than in-house solutions. Among the key benefits of DRaaS are the following 10:
- Your IT team can focus on core operations: when your in-house IT team is tasked with the maintenance, testing and IT support associated with disaster recovery planning, they don’t have the time to focus on other, critical IT functions. DRaaS simplifies IT management and frees up your IT staff to do what they do best.
- You’ll be up and running more quickly: when it comes to disaster recovery planning, you can’t afford to delay implementation. With DRaaS, you won’t need to wait for months while hardware installations are taking place and being tested.
- You’ll save money: in-house disaster recovery programs are expensive, primarily because of the recurring costs for maintenance and IT support. Although DRaaS does represent an investment, your business will reduce costs over the long term.
- You won’t pay for something you never use: with an in-house solution, you’ll inevitably have storage space you don’t use. With a cloud-based, DRaaS solution, you only pay for what you actually use. If your needs increase over time, you can upgrade your service efficiently and quickly.
- Your recovery time will be faster: the longer it takes for your business to recover following a disaster, the more money your business will lose. Whereas in-house solutions can lead to protracted recovery times, a DRaaS solution will typically have you back in business quickly, often in 15 minutes or less.
- You’ll have greater access: because DRaaS is a cloud-based solution, you’ll be able to access your system from any location which has an internet connection. If a natural disaster makes your office unusable, for example, you’ll still be able to do business from another location.
- You’ll maintain in-house control: DRaaS doesn’t mean your business will lose control of your IT environment. Your in-house team will still be able to manage data storage, run reports, and recover lost data on their own.
- You won’t be responsible for hardware protection: one of the big costs of data recovery plans is that associated with data protection for hardware. When you move to a DRaaS solution, your service provider is responsible for hardware-related data protection.
- Your data center will be secure: it’s important to choose a service provider which can provide your business with comprehensive data security. The best DRaaS providers ensure that their data centers are secure with state-of-the-art features, from CTV cameras to electronic fencing, personals IDs and security-coded doors.
- You’ll have expert help and guidance: reputable service providers will typically have deeper experience managing data security and disaster recovery planning than your in-house team, in part because this is central to what they do. When problems occur, the best providers will be able to handle them, quickly and efficiently.
Conclusion
Both man-made and natural disasters can do more than cost your business money—they can shut your business down. According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), 40% of businesses never reopen following a disaster, and of those that do, 29% close in the following 2 years.
You owe it to yourself—and your business—to ensure you have an effective (and cost-effective) disaster recovery plan in place. To learn more about the ways our infrastructure, disaster recover, backup, communications and managed services will ensure the security and continuity of your business, contact us today.
