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Have you wondered why stories of failure in disaster recovery and business continuity continue to occur, affecting businesses and their consumers and partners? Well, let’s remember an event that happened in 2023. United Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines saw service outages in 2023 resulting from miscalculated software upgrades, which ended the year with a meltdown in holiday travel around the country.
In addition, the New York Stock Exchange also had a cascade of issues when a lone employee failed to turn off a backup server at the appropriate time. This minor mistake led to incorrect stock data and massive global market swings the following day.
Backup and disaster recovery failures in a small or medium-sized business may not have global implications. However, they can have resonating and long-lasting impacts on a business’s reputation and bottom line.
As such, it’s essential that every organization – regardless of size or industry – has trusted and ironclad backup and disaster recovery solutions in place to protect data, revenue, and the organization’s good name.
The foundation of disaster recovery planning
Backup and disaster recovery begin with extensive internal and external research, and the best backup and disaster recovery solutions are tailored to a company’s unique pain points and vulnerabilities.
Therefore, disaster recovery solutions tend to start with a full accounting of an organization, which includes the following.
Assessing the Probability of Potential Disasters
It’s essential to take stock of the natural or manmade disasters that could potentially impact your company, and the likelihood of these disasters coming to fruition. For example, a company in a coastal area may deem hurricanes to be a highly likely threat.
On the other hand, a company that deals with medical or financial data may be more prone to cyberattacks. Make sure that all crises are considered – even if they seem unlikely – to have a solid foundation for the plans to come.
Cataloging your IT infrastructure and its vulnerability
The other thing that needs to be assessed is an organization’s IT infrastructure and how it could be impacted by one or more disasters. This includes hardware like servers, but it also includes internal data, cloud-based applications and software, and all the systems and connections that allow a business to operate on a daily basis. Consider the cost to your organization if some or all of these systems fail or your sensitive data is leaked, lost, or otherwise compromised.
Cybersecurity in disaster recovery
Cybersecurity cannot be overlooked in terms of disaster recovery and backup solutions. As such, 2023 saw a 72% increase in data breaches since 2021, which held the previous record.
So, while it’s essential to plan for natural disasters, like storms or power outages, having a detailed plan to protect and proactively react to cyberattacks is becoming more important than ever as attacks continue to climb. This is especially true for organizations that deal with sensitive information on a regular basis.
Cybersecurity can also protect organizations that may have to adhere to legal standards or industry. If these extra regulations are in place, a cyberattack could be even more costly and result in fines, lawsuits, and other revenue and reputation-damaging consequences.
Human error and disaster recovery planning
Human error is another overlooked cause of emergencies, data breaches, and downtime that needs to be considered in every disaster recovery plan. Accidental (or even intentional) deletion or corruption is commonplace, as are misconfigurations and security oversights that can spiderweb from one employee through an entire company.
Consider the rise of email attacks that don’t seem they are going to stop anytime soon. According to recent statistics, 94% of organizations reported email security incidents as of 2023, and this is another cyberattack-related number that continues to rise.
One employee clicking on the wrong link or attachment can quickly spread through a company, with contacts, software, and other connections to an organization being similarly and subsequently compromised.
Steps for a successful disaster recovery – from immediate to long-term rebuilding
The exact details of your specific disaster recovery plan will obviously vary based on your company’s unique operations and vulnerabilities. However, a solid disaster recovery and backup plan includes the following.
- Protected infrastructure – Your IT infrastructure should be protected from both physical threats and cyberthreats, with servers and other equipment housed within a secure and constantly monitored facility.
- Protected data – All your data, software, and applications should have waves of protection against cyberattacks or other threats, with security measures in place to ensure a human error or other minor issues don’t lead to an organization-wide crisis.
- Reliable backup procedures – Your instrumental data and IT infrastructure should be constantly and routinely backed up to ensure that your organization can minimize downtime and effectively run after disaster strikes.
- Training and employee education – Having training in place to ensure that your employees can identify potential threats and cyberattacks will go a long way in protecting your company.
- An airtight communications system – Even if a disaster hits and your company or employees experience downtime, you need a way to communicate with your team, customers, and partners to ensure that everyone is on the same page and can work together to get back to normal as soon as possible. A powerful disaster recovery plan has a communications contingency that ensures everyone is updated, regardless of power outages or other connection issues.
The best backup and disaster recovery solutions start with expert guidance
Crafting a backup and disaster recovery plan is not a simple venture. In addition, it’s very easy to miss potential threats on the horizon or let security measures and backup solutions slip through the cracks.
This is why the best backup and disaster recovery plans start and end with expert guidance.
At DartPoints, we’ll perform a full audit of your distinctive organization to pinpoint the vulnerabilities and threats that may come to fruition. We will also help ensure you have rock-solid solutions in place to minimize your downtime as much as possible and your business can continue to function.
A disaster recovery plan provides ample peace of mind now and miles into the future. With an expert like DartPoints behind the scenes, you can rest assured that your business is protected, regardless of any unexpected disasters or emergencies that may be on the horizon.
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Contact us today to explore the best backup and disaster recovery solutions.