Understanding Backup and Disaster Recovery for Modern Businesses
Business leaders have always sought to protect their organisations from accidents and bad actors. Over the last few decades, however, the protection of physical property is now coupled with the need to keep safe data that only exists digitally. Various solutions for protecting data have emerged almost as quickly as other digital technologies, meaning that it can be hard to keep pace with the various concepts. This blog looks at explaining the two most common terms – Backup and Disaster Recovery – and how they are both utilised by businesses to safeguard against threats to their data.
Importance of Data for Modern Businesses
All animals are distinguished by the evolutionary niches that have allowed them to survive – some are fast, some are camouflaged, some are small, and so on. Humans are distinguished by their intelligence and their ability to construct narratives to make sense of the world. While this means that accessing and understanding information has always been essential to the success of humanity, the decades since the end of World War Two have set themselves apart. We now live in a time when information is processed at speeds that were once unthinkable, while experiencing a blurring of the digital, biological, and physical worlds.
For businesses this means that data is power. Creativity, personal relationships, management skills, and instinct all still have a place in modern business, but data is now being used to support all of them, and in some cases supersede them. Data is compiled, processed, and analysed every day, allowing companies to give themselves all the advantages necessary to succeed in our fast-paced society. However, this also means that failure to protect one’s data can be a truly massive setback for any organisation.
What is Backup?
Backup is a term that many of us are familiar with, due to even the most common consumer devices and applications now offering backup options. In its basic form it is quite self-explanatory – it is a copy of a piece of computer data stored elsewhere, literally being a backup of the original. If a person experiences accidental or malicious data deletion, corruption of their data, or faces any accessibility issues with their devices, backups can allow data to be recovered.
Types of Backup
There are a variety of storage options for data backup. People can directly utilise physical devices themselves, storing their data on external hard drives and USB flash drives for ready access upon insertion into a computer or other device. Alternatively, data can be stored through server backup. This sees data being uploaded on to servers that are either on-premises or cloud-based, meaning stored by a service provider.
On-premises Backup
On-premises server backup requires a fair bit of investment as it means that the user – in this case often a company – quite literally keeps their own servers on their premises. Otherwise known as in-house backup, it requires a lot of attention in the form of a dedicated physical space that needs to be maintained by IT personnel. There is also the issue that typically no one else is responsible, with the organisation having to deal with data loss or system failures themselves. However, this backup method is often seen as more secure due to all data remaining in control of the organisation and not relying solely on an internet connection to do the backup process.
Cloud Backup
Cloud backup, otherwise known as remote backup, is in some ways the opposite of on-premises. The lack of upfront costs makes it accessible to virtually anyone, and this accessibility is part of its broader flexibility. Cloud backup allows scalability, customisation of backup frequency, and the ability to backup regardless of location, so long as there is an internet connection. The need for an internet connection is among the biggest drawbacks of this backup strategy, as are data storage limits, the need to trust another organisation, and continuous subscription costs.
Backup Service Providers
On-premises backup versus cloud backup is often painted as a situation of choosing to go it alone or seeking the help of a service. But the fact is even if you have in-house servers, there are Backup as a Service providers that can support you. At FluidOne, our Managed Backup Services can handle everything from backups on to cloud platforms to safeguarding data in your on-premises server estate. Having a partner in place means that even the most technologically literate and resourceful companies can be assured that they have a competent and dedicated partner protecting their data resources
What is Disaster Recovery?
Disaster recovery, sometimes specified as IT disaster recovery or shortened to just DR, is a process that focuses on IT infrastructure maintenance and reestablishment after a disaster. It the IT specific part of business continuity, which seeks the reestablishment of all aspects of an organisation. Due to most businesses becoming increasingly reliant on IT, disaster recovery is a contender for the most important aspect of business continuity.
Key Components of a Disaster Recovery Plan
Businesses are often not considered to be truly taking part in disaster recovery until they develop a formalised plan. Developing a disaster recovery plan ensures companies can identify what they need to do to maintain their business activities. There are several possible steps to this:
- Risk assessment – what could harm operations and what difficulties can be encountered?
- Deciding on recovery objectives – if not everything can be saved, what is achievable and what are the priorities? What are acceptable time measures to perform recovery actions?
- Actions – What will the organisation put in place to achieve the objectives?
- Testing and Review – Do the actions work? Do they work in the future, perhaps years after the plan was first formulated?
Plans should be continually updated, so that they can keep pace with the evolving nature of modern business and the threats businesses may face. Although any plan is better than nothing, an out-of-date disaster recovery plan has the potential to hinder rather than help an organisation. If you do not know where to start, it can be worth reaching out to a Disaster Recovery as a Service provider. For example, at FluidOne our Managed IT Services team can not only work with you to create new disaster recovery plans and update existing ones, but they can also provide you with many of the most important disaster recovery solutions, including those listed below:
Disaster Recovery Solutions
Sitting down to create a plan for disaster recovery will almost always lead to a realisation that more data recovery solutions are needed, compared to if an organisation decides to enact solutions on an ad-hoc basis. Solutions can be physical, but many are now virtual to reflect the digital needs of the modern economy.
Backup
The answer to the difference between disaster recovery and backup, is that disaster recovery is an all-encompassing plan, whereas backup is a single solution that forms a part of disaster recovery. Having data copies stored through utilising backup is possibly the most common disaster recovery solution there is.
Moving to the Cloud
Backups are one way that the cloud can be utilised, but the technology offers so much more. For example, hosted desktops mean that data can be instantly stored on the cloud rather than having to go through a backup procedure.
Hosted Solutions
Hosted solutions encompass computing services that are accessible through the internet. With a continuously growing number of business activities being able to be conducted over the internet, having these solutions in place means that even a predominantly office-based workforce can be quickly mobilised remotely and continue to operate.
Intelligent Monitoring
An important aspect of disaster recovery is the prevention and mitigation of problems. Intelligent monitoring is an example, where software can highlight and resolve issues related to an IT infrastructure’s performance, availability, and security. Resolution can even take place long before a human alone would become aware of the problem.
High Availability Disaster Recovery
Planned or unplanned downtime can always have a knock-on effect, potentially causing data loss or even worse consequences for organisations. Downtime can be virtually eliminated by high availability, which utilises continual data replication and mirroring of IT infrastructure so that is always a copy of everything.
High Bandwidth Connectivity
Leased lines, Ethernet-in-the-First-Mile, and other high bandwidth solutions dramatically improve network speeds. This can prove crucial for businesses to respond to problems quickly and organise their solutions.
Mobile Device Management (MDM) Software
Having employee devices monitored, managed, and secured remotely can dramatically increase the security of a business, as well as allow disaster recovery plans to be directly enacted.
Enterprise-Grade Data Encryption
Ensuring that data of any category is encrypted will safeguard privacy and limit the damage that a cyber attack can do – one of the top modern-day business disasters.
Private networking technologies
Data security can be dramatically improved with dedicated connections such as private leased line. Data flows can become secure to the point of being invisible to the internet.
Why Are Backup and Disaster Recovery Important?
Having the seen the full extent of what disaster recovery encompasses, it can be understandable for one to approach the subject with hesitation. There is so much that possibly can be done, it is tempting to put things off to complete more urgent tasks. Perhaps sticking solely with one existing solution, such as backups, is enough? Be warned though, a lack of testing and software maintenance means that over half of data backups fail.
Taking the time to decide a backup service provider or to develop a disaster plan which factors in testing and maintenance – or does not rely solely on backups – can greatly help one’s chances of recovery. The truth is this is a subject that cannot be an afterthought for any organisation for many reasons, especially as roughly a quarter of businesses do not reopen after disasters.
Common Business Disasters
The word disaster means that it is possible that people associate the concept solely with natural disasters. These include everything from floods to fires and storms to earthquakes. Of course, when these strike they can prove devastating, destroying not just the physical assets of a company but also the surrounding infrastructure and society that businesses operate in. However, the occurrence of these events is spread unevenly across the world, leading to businesses in some locations thinking that they are immune from any disaster.
This could not be further from the truth, as the prevailing causes of downtime are those that can impact all organisations. Research has found that around three-quarters of organisations say that they have experienced downtime caused by security and data breaches, while two-thirds have had to deal with human error-created downtime. Clearly, almost no organisation is free from something like a cyber attack or device mismanagement.
Protecting Against Data Loss
Think about the data in your organisation. You can find sales statistics, employee information, financial data, and practically every valuable piece of information that a modern business needs to survive. If any of that is lost it can have a detrimental effect on both a company’s current operations and their future strategy development. Considering that an international survey has found that nearly half of organisations had experienced some degree of permanent data loss, it is vital that a well-documented, tested, and updated disaster recovery plan is in place. How much of your data can you truly afford to lose?
Compliance and Legal Requirements
There is no set global standard law or regulation regarding disaster recovery, but most organisations will find themselves operating within a jurisdiction that has something in place. These laws or regulations may directly govern disaster recovery, or perhaps indirectly influence through being a regulation centred on data privacy and protection. For example, in the UK, the Data Protection Act of 2018 makes having plan in place for data breaches a requirement for all businesses. Other regulations exist in other jurisdictions, such as HIPPA in the USA and the California Consumer Privacy Act in the state of California specifically. Failure to comply with such regulations could see the business experience penalties, such as fines.
Business Continuity and Financial Implications
It is hard to put a figure on creating and implementing a disaster recovery plan as every business is unique and a range of factors come into play, from the size of the business to the solutions they aim to put in place. Associated costs can be anything from a few thousand pounds a year to several million pounds. This might seem like a large investment, especially when margins are tight. However, it pales into comparison of the cost of experiencing a disaster.
As an example, in the USA it was found in around 90% of medium to large corporations that downtime costs of $300,000 per hour were common. These costs consist of both expenditures to deal with the issue and lost revenue due to disrupted operations. Disaster recovery plans are not foolproof and organisations with them will still suffer, but they will suffer less regularly and less extensively when disasters do occur. It has been found that companies with frequent periods of downtime experience 16 times the costs compared to companies with fewer instances.
Conclusion
Today, data is the lifeblood of organisations and protecting it is a matter of survival. Threats can come from both the natural world as well as being man-made, but to mitigate the effects of potential disasters and downtime it is vital that a disaster recovery plan is made. Businesses must ensure that their plans fit their unique situation, though it is likely that they will use several of the most widespread solutions within their plan, such as backup.
With so much at stake it can be prudent to seek advice. At FluidOne, we will be happy to discuss your concerns, from backup management through to disaster recovery as a service.
To get started on your Disaster Recovery journey, activate our offer of a free 30-day trial of AvePoint - M365 Backup.
