In the Information Age, data has become currency. Organizations leverage data to make smarter decisions, improve operations, and track customers and clients. However, networks can be vulnerable and hardware can fail. In the event of a disaster, valuable data can be permanently lost without proper disaster recovery methods in place.
What Is Data Backup & BCDR?
Protecting your data means securing your business. Businesses use Data Backup and Disaster Recovery as agile and secure methods to ensure their work can continue when faced with both natural and man-made catastrophes.
Data Backup
Data backup is the process of creating copies of computer files and folders and storing them in a separate location from your local storage device. It should be used for all data and computer systems. Backup is a snapshot of how data existed at a given point in time, and it allows the restoration of data to that point. It’s useful for recovering from malware attacks, preserving data for regulatory compliance, or simply protecting your files from a user mistake or corruption. Backup is a simple process in which a software application is tasked with making a copy of your data and storing it on its own media. These media can include disk, tape, and increasingly, cloud storage targets. Best practices include having copies of your backups in multiple locations.
Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery
Business continuity & disaster recovery is the process of protecting an organization’s IT infrastructure, data, and, most importantly, operations from man-made and natural disasters ranging from earthquakes, hurricanes, and pandemics to severed communication lines or power outages. The primary focus of BCDR is keeping the business operational, no matter the circumstances.
Identifying The Right BCDR Method
A crucial step in protecting your business is identifying the right BCDR method for your needs. There are a number of approaches a business can employ to protect itself, and it’s important to weigh your risk level against the cost of the plan you decide on. You should think of BCDR both as a form of insurance and as a cost of doing business, so the question becomes ‘how much insurance can I afford?’.
BCDR isn’t just about your data or computers. While protecting these are both important, you also need to consider how your employees will interact with your data and customers in a disaster scenario.
For decades, large and wealthy institutions protected themselves by maintaining duplicate sets of their equipment and data in alternate sites. These sites were prepared with dedicated power generators and fuel supplies. This system maintained multiple levels of redundancy in physical locations made invulnerable to flooding. Companies provide desks, phones, and printers for their workers in these alternate sites that do nothing but wait in case they’re needed. Any time a piece of equipment in the office was upgraded or replaced, its counterpart in the BCDR facility was replaced. This system of protection ensured that no matter what happened, the business could continue. However, this was exorbitantly expensive and required the business to buy everything twice, including rent and electricity. Nowadays, technology has placed effective BCDR within the reach of all businesses.
Cloud-Based Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery
Today, organizations can operate effectively using nothing but cloud services for their application and data storage needs. Using the cloud provides BCDR automatically — your data and applications are stored offsite in your provider’s cloud, and they are responsible for making sure it’s always available. Even those who can’t upload their business to the cloud can leverage available service offerings to protect themselves and prepare for disaster.
One of the simplest and most effective BCDR approaches is to leverage cloud-based offerings to maintain a nearly up-to-the-second copy of your data in a cloud location while preparing offline copies of your computers and applications that can be powered on and running in very short order. Your employees can access your data and applications remotely, and you pay only for the storage and computing power you actually use.
Speak To An Experienced Managed IT Services Provider
If you are interested in securing your organization’s technology operations against the unforeseen, Data Backup and BCDR plans are the solution. With a backup solution in place, you’re protected against cybersecurity threats like malware infections, and your team can mitigate risks and keep the system rolling through any event with a go-to Disaster Recovery plan in place. In the end, business operations and customer privacy can only benefit. Reach out to a SeaGlass Technology representative today to learn more about managed IT services by calling 212.886.0790 or schedule a consultation online.