February 16, 2017

How The Cloud Has Changed Disaster Recovery

Cloud recovery

In today's technologically advanced world, the question is no longer whether an organization needs a disaster recovery(DR) plan—rather, it’s ‘what kind,’ and ‘to what extent.’ Regardless of size—big, small, or anywhere in between, having a DR plan in place is necessary, and imperative for success. Per Identity Theft Resource Center, U.S. companies saw a 40% increase in data breaches from 2015 to 2016. And companies of all sizes are being targeted. Luckily, the cloud has changed DR for the better, and it's become readily available to anyone in search of a robust disaster recovery option, including—you guessed it—small businesses.

The new model of cloud-based solutions has become increasingly simple. Companies no longer need to invest upfront in hardware and software for a disaster scenario that may never occur, rather, they have the option to pay for monthly protection, like an insurance plan. The new model has increased manageability with simplified user interfaces and processes for deploying systems, as well as a flexible deployment that allows for easy scaling up or down when necessary, thereby greatly reducing risk. DR capabilities such as true Continuous Data Protection and low Recovery Point Objective (RPO) and Recovery Time Objective (RTO) are just cherries on top of the cake, essentially eliminating recovery time if a disaster does take place.

Your Small Business and the Cloud

For many small companies, coming up with a disaster recovery plan falls by the wayside when day to day operations take priority. Your IT team may read a few books on DR, search "worst case scenarios of not having a Disaster Recovery Plan" on the internet, and hope that nothing bad will happen in the meantime. And while doing these things is better than nothing, as you might have guessed: it's just not enough. There’s a lot to be learned about the repercussions of not having a DR plan for small businesses—and it's not pretty. Here’s the scoop.

  • Nearly 40% of small businesses close after a disaster, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
  • 75% of small businesses do not have a disaster recovery plan in place, according to a 2015 survey of 500 small business owners conducted by Nationwide.
  • 52% of small businesses say it would take at least three months to recover from a disaster, according to the same survey.
  • Only 18% of companies surveyed that have fewer than 50 employees have a disaster recovery plan, according to the same survey.

If these statistics frightened you, you’re not alone and you don’t have to tackle it by yourself. You may want to consider outsourcing DR to a managed service provider.  It can be a truly effectual, cost-effective, and most importantly, the best way to keep your company safe with limited resources. It can also help you free up time to focus on moving your business forward rather than the distraction of what disaster could happen. The following are some examples of cases in which a DR plan is crucial.

  • Cloud, Disaster recovery, IT codeInternet Outage
  • Major Virus/Hack
  • Local Power Outage
  • Regional Power Outage
  • Phone System Failure
  • Server Failure
  • Computer Crashes

In most cases, multiple users will be affected, and while the duration of downtime varies based on severity, at minimum they’re inconvenient business disruptions.

It's also critical to know which plan fits your organization best. Anthony L. Butler's Cracking the IT Code: Technology Management for Non-Technology Managers gives a succinct summation of the different tiers of DR available. They are as follows:

  • Tier 1: Providers who own their proprietary platform and run service across private networks. These providers tend to be at the higher end of the cost scale, but can deliver a premium in reliability, integration, customization, and service.
  • Tier 2: Providers who lease their platform from a software developer and run service across private networks… They tend to be slightly lower cost than Tier 1, but normally don’t have the flexibility to customize solutions for enterprise clients and have limited advanced services, integration capability, and customization.
  • Tier 3: Providers who generally provide service through the open Internet… Their expertise is typically very low and rarely offer advanced services, integration and customization. Their strength is their lower cost. They are generally not a good fit for companies with more than eight to ten users at a single location.

According to a recent Touche Ross study, the survival rate for companies without a disaster recovery plan is less than 10%. With the right mindset and an assertive attitude, it’s easy not to become a statistic. The cloud is scalable, global, manageable, and elastic. With all of these new cloud options, Disaster Recovery virtually eliminates the potential for data-loss risk.

With the fastest-ever recovery times, and more accessible payment options that don’t break the bank, the cloud has brought SMBs into the world of DR previously only available to large enterprises. It’s cost effective, reliable, and flexible, just like your business.