There are multiple types of disasters which have the potential to diminish the business data and networks. These events of disasters can either be natural or technical ones. Natural disasters are unavoidable ones, but that does not stop us from taking preventive measures. In a nutshell, for anyone running a big corporate network, then not having a disaster recovery service would cost much of the worst consequences. A disaster recovery DR plan is nothing but a rescue plan for resuming work quickly in the aftermath of the disaster.
Depending on the severity of the disasters, an impact can be so large that damage can become irreparable. Statistics and reports are indicative enough to tell about their severity. According to the statistics of the National Archives and Records Administration, 93% of those companies who experience data loss and that outage goes on for about 10 days, they ultimately have to go for bankruptcy within the next 12 months. Furthermore, 43% of those companies who do not have an efficient disaster recovery planning, will eventually experience the severe aftermaths of data loss.
Benefits of IT Disaster Recovery Plan
With the statistics, it is quite well known that the only way to escape the aftermath of the disaster is to have a contagious DR plan. However, to have a better understanding, the following are some of the compelling benefits of the disaster recovery plan:
Cost Efficiency
Before going into exploring cost effective aspects of the disaster recovery as a service, let’s get familiarized with the important elements of the DR plan. DR plan includes preventive measures to reduce the human-created risks. It comprises of detective measures to identify unnecessary events or cyber attacks. It also includes corrective measures for restoring lost data. Thus, it is very well understood that with the on-time updates and going for more innovative software and hardware will let the organization save money for a longer period.
It makes sense too, because if any minor problem is identified at the earlier stage, then probably five minutes shut down can save the organization from suffering 1 hour or 1 day or even longer shutdowns. Furthermore, opting for cloud based data management ventures can also let organizations optimize their cost. It cannot only minimize the archive maintenance cost but will also help organizations towards undergoing business continuity planning.
Technical Failures
Although modern hardware is quite prone to technical failures, one should not fall into this trap. Nothing has perfect immunity, and it takes just one bush to catch fire. Since companies cannot afford to lose their IT network at any point, therefore a disaster recovery site is the only way to make sure that technical failures do not cause any business interruption.
In this regard, the most feasible option is to prepare regular backups of the data. Furthermore, a more cost-effective approach will be to outsource the IT establishment to some renowned Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRASS) vendor. They have the state-of-the-art data center to keep copies of the user data and provide point in time recovery in case of any disaster.
Human Mistakes
Apart from technical failures, the probability of human error cannot be negated. Almost all of us have been in a situation where we accidentally forget to periodically save the document and all of a sudden computer crash. In case if someone is well cautious, even then, manmade mistakes can happen. However, this probability can be made near to zero by having a disaster recovery plan. In this situation, an incremental online backup will create backups for every change made in the file, thus ensuring error-free recovery in case of any disaster.
In addition to this, quality insurance drills are also amongst other ways to minimize human mistakes. In this regard, having a disaster recovery plan which can ensure checking and double-checking defined protocols can also be a handy tool to reduce human-induced mistakes.
Customer Expectations
The IT industry is centered across a wide array of customers. Therefore, it is one of those industries that demand a high level of customer satisfaction. With more spread of IT, competition is increasing day by day. In addition to the competition, better customer service and low product prices are some of the other major expectations. Having said this, the customer looks most for perfection. They are interested in knowing more about their investment security and are keener to know what measures will this company take to safeguard customer stakes. So, in this case, if they find that this company does not have a disaster recovery plan to ace through any disaster, then your competitor is surely going to supersede you. Therefore, it is very important not to give the customer a reason to leave, especially for the reason which are very well preventable.
Customer Retention
It is said that though customer retention is costly, customer re-acquisition is a lot more costly. It does not only cause someone a loss of revenue but a loss of trust too. Re-acquiring a customer after an IT disaster is considered nearly next to impossible. It has some validation too, because if a customer feels that the company system is so unreliable that one failure can hinder its activities, then how can I expect safeguard of my investment in the longer run. Therefore, it is highly advised to devise a disaster recovery plan because it will be much less costly than losing a customer.
Conclusion
The above arguments present a very well-versed case in favor of the disaster recovery plan. There is no doubt in acclaiming its importance for the business continuity as well as for the prevention of the company’s stakes and hardware. Cloud backups can prove to be a very handy tool in combatting pre and post-disaster situations. With everything on the remote server, not only does hardware failures can be minimized, but the cost of having an onsite backup system can also be saved.
