Disaster recovery planning: Why data backup alone isn’t enough

Having all your data fully backed up ensures that you have saved copies of critical business files in case of a disaster or a cyberattack. But is it enough? Not quite. Companies in Miami do their best to avoid the devastating effects of hurricanes and other natural disasters. But it’s proving to be increasingly challenging, especially since the Magic City is known to be vulnerable to flooding. To survive, many businesses have adopted a long-term disaster preparedness strategy to make sure they withstand another Hurricane Irma or Katrina — and that requires more than just having data backups. Here at Sabio IT, we implement dependable data backup solutions but also strongly advocate complementing backups with a smart IT disaster recovery (DR) plan.

What does data backup do?

Data backup involves duplicating copies of your files in an offsite, onsite, or cloud storage, where it can be retrieved in case of data loss. A good backup plan encrypts and archives data at secure centers, and should be easily restored within minutes. However, there’s really not much you can do with data that sits in a secure storage. Even after a catastrophe, you will still need to access your programs and files and communicate with colleagues, clients, and third-party vendors. When your data is fully backed up, you can regain full access to them, but without any way to restore operations, your backups will be practically useless.

How does a disaster recovery plan help?

Suppose a hurricane renders your office and the equipment in it unusable. Your employees may be able to access and recover files from a remote location using their own devices, but they won’t be able to work and profitability will inevitably suffer. Disaster recovery planning involves both backup and restoration by equipping you with the tools you need to get back to business. Downtime events will be one of your biggest hurdles while dealing with a disaster, but with a DR plan, you’ll have access to functioning computer systems. The key to a DR plan is your Recovery Point Objective (RPO) and Recovery Time Objective (RTO) measures, which will assess a disaster’s impact on your business. Knowing your company’s RPO and RTO lets you determine the technology, people, and other resources you’ll need to become operational again. RPO – Indicates the amount of data you can afford to lose, which varies from business to business. For example, a retail company may be able to afford to lose data within a 3-hour period, but financial firms or healthcare companies that have critical data and stringent compliance requirements, require a narrower RPO. RTO – Refers to how fast you need to recover data. So a financial firm might need to recover data within an hour (or shorter), but a retail business can continue operations with a longer RTO — say, 8-10 hours.

Implement a DR solution now

Computer support companies in Miami like Sabio strongly encourage organizations to implement business continuity best practices, like regularly backing up data and establishing and refining disaster recovery strategies. That said, implementing business continuity policies require the expertise of certified cloud experts who can set up robust solutions particularly for those with limited technical capacity. In these highly unpredictable and disaster-prone times, a backup and DR solution will serve as your lifeline in case a disaster strikes. Almost any business can withstand catastrophic events as long as they’re prepared. Let Sabio Information Technologies’ Backup & Disaster Recovery solutions bulletproof your systems so you won’t have to worry about productivity- and profit-killing disasters. Call us today.