Is Data Backup Enough for Your Business?

Can you afford to be out of business for a few days?

Most likely, the answer to this is a big NO.

Many businesses care for the technology side of their company with file backups. You back up your documents in the case that something goes wrong so you can recover them. But what happens with the server goes down completely? You’ll be out of luck until it’s restored.

Case Study –Doctor’s Office Goes Down

Take for instance, a small doctor’s office server went down. And while they did have file backups in place, it wasn’t enough to continue to run their business smoothly.  

Every night at 9pm, all of their files are backed up like clockwork. However, during the day on Saturday, the server gave out – all of the documents from 9pm Friday until that moment was lost. And the time spent to get their server back up and running once the problem was discovered meant they weren’t fully functional again until Monday.

Once they were able to find out about the server issue early Monday morning, they were able to get a temporary server in place by that afternoon. While they were able to get up and running the same day, what was lost during that time was rough for their business.

In that down time, they couldn’t see schedules, didn’t know who was coming, couldn’t access the system to check-in, couldn’t reschedule patients without access to the system. They had to turn away business!

The business said being down costs them a minimum of $10,000 a day. Ouch.

This business was prepared for disaster recovery with their file backups, but not prepared for business continuity. Some businesses can get by with a simple backup plan. But any company that uses specialized software needs something more robust.

What is Business Continuity?

Business continuity focuses on making sure everything continues to run. For example, quotes are still being made, schedules are met, emails are sent and can be received. This will all be able to be take place while recovering from the disaster.

For a small company, like the doctor’s office, having a business continuity solution could have been as low as a one-time cost of $800 for the device and then just $100 per month.

For a company like theirs who loses $10K per day when they are out of business, one year of business continuity is $800 + $1200 = $2000. Having a business continuity plan, more than pays for itself with just 1 disaster. Can you afford not to have this insurance policy?

What is a Data Backup?

A backup, or better stated as the process of backing up, is one of the most important computer terms you should know. It refers to creating a copy and archive of your files. This data backup protects you from losing your documents, photos, and any other type of file you want to preserve in the case your originals are lost.

What is Disaster Recovery?

This is when you have a plan in place for your work environment to be up and running again quickly if a disaster were to strike. Disaster recovery uses systems and not just data. It can restore quickly what happened during the disaster.

A disaster comes in my forms. Some of the most popular forms are:

• Natural Disasters
• Fire
• Theft
• Electrical Damages
• Sabotage

One of the questions you need to ask yourself is how quickly you need to recover your IT sources if there is a disaster. How much will it effect your business? Will your business be able to continue for a while or will it have to shut down for an unknown time period? Your Recovery Time Objective (RTO) is something that needs to be addressed if you are wanting to be back in business quickly after an unplanned outage happens in your environment.

If you are missing servers, switches, and facilities to restore the data, data backup will not be able to help your business. This means it can take multiple days to get it back up and running 100%.

If your business has concluded that it needs to be up and running during a disaster, a Business Continuity Plan is the next step. This will allow your business to continue to run and doesn’t need to wait for a new server to be put in place and your data to be restored. This way, you will be up and running again in only a couple hours (and in some cases minutes).

Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity are very similar. They both have the goal of helping your business and staff members get back up and running after a catastrophic event.

Here is the main difference between the two:

• Disaster recovery focuses on the data and accessing the data.  It aims at not over recovering but protecting too.
• Business Continuity focuses on making sure everything continues to run. For example, quotes are still being made, schedules are met, emails are sent and can be received. This will all be able to be take place while recovering from the disaster.

Net Engineers is here to help you. We will not only consult you with your Recover Time Objective but will lay out each of your options, so you have the best solution for your business. We want your business to be back up and running as quickly as possible in the event of a disaster. Contact the professionals at Net Engineers today!