Data is almost equivalent to the building blocks of any important business or organization. It is usually the heart or the life of the company without which functioning and survival of the company is problematic. Data is stored in the hard disk of the computer systems and help ensure proper functioning such as shipping to right addresses and helps in communication with various contacts. Data enables companies to communicate in a Business to consumer capacity as well as business to business capacity. Hence organized recovery of data from the company hard drive is an absolute necessity. In case of loss of data a company might be forced to shut down as functioning without data is nearly impossible and for each day that the company remains shut it can lose onto a lot of money often ranging from thousands to millions of dollars. This cost is extremely high because of the amount they spend in the employee’s salary, daily maintenance and loss of sales in a single day and also the cost involved in manufacturing in case of durables or products. Also there might be a lot of extra costs involved varying from business to business that might be incurred to the losses.
Thereby businesses need a well- organized recovery plan so as to ensure a good quality recovery. Also the data should be backed up frequently so that the loss of data can be minimized. Not backing up your data regularly and safely can cripple your business in more than one ways.
Why the need for disaster recovery plan?
You believe your business is secure and strong? Well, then you are mistaken because if your business is vulnerable in terms of network security- that in itself is the weakest link for your business. Most times in offices it so happens that employees leave their computers unattended to not go through the process of rebooting all over again. These unattended computers are a soft and easy target for hackers. This is the reason why it is inevitable for a company to have a professional protect their data and help in time of emergency if the data or sensitive information happens to be hacked and tampered with or deleted.
Cyber-crime which remains unchecked and unreported happens to cause huge losses to companies all over the world. Though hackers pose a great amount of danger to the sensitive data, they are not the lone causes of damage. Companies that lose important client data are at a huge loss too since their reputation is pulled down and client satisfaction and trust is largely effected. Thus the companies should back up all their important data through proper back up services offered by reputed companies or professionals in a manner that the information is easily retrievable at a later point of time and can be restored to the company’s systems. This needs to be done before disaster strikes and not in a moment of emergency.
Network security breaches pose risks not only to businesses and organizations but also the country economy as a whole. The losses incurred annually in the country’s economy due to network security breaches are often estimated at over 5% of the annual budget of the country. Also, if important and sensitive data is lost by a firm or company, the client reserves the right to sue the company for causing loss of the client’s data.
Also, in case of natural disasters like earthquakes and floods the data might be lost permanently and if the data is not backed up entirely and restored in time then the business might be forced to shut down and in most cases never reopen. This happens as most businesses suffer losses that make them broke and hence cannot support starting the business afresh.
Thus it is only advisable for your business to have a data recovery plan much in advance so that your data remains safe in case of unforeseen mishaps. Also if your employees are well trained in backing up information and restoring it as per requirements it gets easier for them to minimize damages caused by human errors.
Some companies also put sensitive information at risk by relying on a single employee with it, thus if the employee resigns or there is an event of his computer facing a breakdown you would not lose on the information completely if it is backed up on a reliable backup hard drive. This will prevent loss of information even it is purposely damaged or tampered with.
So, back up your business data before time runs out. You are not only safeguarding information and data but also your business from shutting down in case of natural or man-made disasters. I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase- “Better Safe than Sorry.”