7 Reasons Why Your Business Needs a Data Backup and Recovery Plan
In 2024, developing and implementing a robust data backup and recovery plan is vital to keep your business up-and-running.
Most IT managers and administrators see backing up data as a routine task. And like many routine tasks, its importance can get lost in the everyday bustle of business activity.
Disasters that result in data breaches can strike at any time. And as news headlines and figures show, when they do, a business’ options to recover its systems and data are likely to be limited and very expensive.
Why Do Businesses Need a Data Backup and Recovery Plan?
If your business doesn't yet have one, you may be facing the task of convincing stakeholders that a data backup and recovery plan is not a nice-to-have, but a must-have.
Here are seven reasons to bolster the argument for a structured approach to data backup and recovery.
Reason 1: Data Loss Prevention
Data loss is more common than we may think. And the reasons behind it can be many and complex. They range from hardware failure and software corruption to human error, cyber crime or ransomware attacks.
Introducing a structured data backup and recovery plan can ensure your operations are back up-and-running as quickly as possible following a data loss event.
Reason 2: Business Continuity
Avoiding downtime is important to any business. But in some industries, downtime can be devastating. For example, manufacturers operating 24/7 production lines can place a monetary value on every minute of downtime. And this can run into tens of thousands of dollars.
A business without a data backup and recovery plan might experience a breach which grinds its production lines to a halt. Their IT team will rally to fix the problem and locate its most recent backups.
But without routine backup verification and testing in place, there's a risk that restores will fail.
Should that data be lost forever, developing a new production line can take months, or even close to a year. On top of the cost of this, the business will be losing revenue by operating below capacity.
On the other hand, a business with a well-communicated data backup and recovery plan would carry out its rehearsed procedures following a data loss event. Each person would be aware of their roles and know the locations and condition of the most recent backups.
Data and system restores would take place as planned and production lines could be back up-and-running within minutes. They would then conduct a root cause analysis and bring any learnings into the plan for continual improvement.
Reason 3: Compliance and Legal Requirements
Many industries have regulatory requirements governing data protection and retention. A data backup and recovery plan can help businesses comply with regulations by ensuring that their data is securely stored and accessible.
An example of this is the United States' Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA. Healthcare organizations must protect patient health information in line with the privacy and security rules it outlines.
Compliance violations can take the form of oversight or neglect. They can also result in fines of hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of dollars.
Again, some industries are bound more tightly than others by legislation. But in all cases, demonstrating compliance is preferable to facing the consequences of a violation.
Reason 4: Mitigate the Impact of Cyber Crime
With the increasing prevalence of cyber threats such as ransomware and malware, businesses of all sizes are at risk of data breaches and extortion attempts.
A robust data backup and recovery plan provides a layer of defense against such attacks by allowing businesses to restore data without paying a ransom or suffering significant losses.
Reason 5: Preserve Intellectual Property
Most businesses rely on valuable intellectual property (IP). This might include the unique designs, ideas and innovation that power product development, the findings of primary research or data that informs their future plans.
IP loss due to a data breach can make or break a business and expose the unique selling propositions upholding its success.
Putting a data backup and recovery plan in place can safeguard IP from loss or theft. This can not only protect a company's products and output, it can also help maintain its hard-earned competitive edge.
Reason 6: Maintain Customer Trust
Customers expect businesses to protect their personal and sensitive information as standard. A breach that results in the loss of that data, or puts it in malicious hands, can erode trust and irreparably damage a business’ reputation.
Having a data backup and recovery plan and data loss prevention tools in place demonstrates a business' commitment to safeguarding its customer's information. The importance of this can't be underestimated. Taking data security seriously inspires the long-term customer trust and loyalty organizations need to stay in business.
Reason 7: Save Costs
Developing and implementing a data backup and recovery plan incurs upfront costs. But it can save the significant expenses associated with data loss and downtime in the longer-term.
The cost of recovering lost data or rebuilding systems from scratch far exceeds the investment in proactive data protection measures. This is another example of how planning ahead of time can mean the difference between a data loss event being a minor incident or an major disaster.
These seven reasons should appeal to the reason of any business decisionmaker not yet on board with the benefits of a robust data backup and recovery plan.
If you'd like to find out more about data backup and recovery plans and data loss prevention solutions, we welcome you to get in touch to explore your options.
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