With technology growing by leaps and bounds, and regulations assigned to protect the data generated by this technology, you need a business continuity and disaster recovery plan in place to determine how that data is collected, protected, analyzed and stored. Read on to find out how to protect your company from data loss and its consequences.
Why You Should Care About Data Protecting Your Data
According to COMPTIA, data protection will be a key trend in 2018 and beyond. Businesses will continue to generate large amounts of data; for some companies, regulations such as PCI, GDPR and HIPAA require protection of data and plans for business continuity in the face of potential data loss. Even without the need for compliance to regulations, businesses need access to their data even in the event of a natural disaster or a cyberattack.
How Much Downtime Can you Afford?
The average cost of downtime is $5,600 per minute. Not only that, but if your business is inaccessible during a flood, fire or other disaster, or simply a power outage, customers can lose confidence in the product or service you provide. Even more serious is the prospect of confidential data being lost or exposed. Having a plan in place can make the difference in whether your business stays in business.
What to Include in Your Plan
How much data can you afford to lose, and how long can you be without it? The best plan provides for storage and restoration of data during and after a disaster. How long can your systems be down before it affects profitability? How will you restore data that is lost? A robust plan is one that enables your company to retrieve lost data as quickly as possible. Data can be stored on-premise on a server, or in the cloud, or a combination of both. Once you have a plan in place, test it to make sure it works, and verify it periodically to make sure all your data is accessible.
Having a plan for business continuity can keep your business in business during a disaster and afterward. If you do not yet have a plan, or if you’re not sure the plan you do have is optimal, contact your trusted technology advisor today.
