World Backup Day is an annual event observed on March 31st. The purpose of this day is to raise awareness about the importance of backing up data and information in case of unexpected events, such as hardware failures, cyber-attacks, or natural disasters. By backing up data, individuals and organizations can ensure that important information is not lost forever.
In today’s digital age, data has become a crucial part of our lives. From personal photos and videos to important business documents, we rely on our devices to store and access an immense amount of data. However, the reality is that our digital devices are not invincible and can fail at any moment. This is where backups come in. Backing up data means creating a copy of it and storing it in a separate location so that if anything happens to the original file, the backup can be used to restore the data. The most important thing is to have a backup plan in place to prevent data loss.
Data is the lifeblood of any business. It’s the driving force behind decision-making, customer engagement, services offered, and revenue growth. As such, data loss can be catastrophic for any business, whether it’s due to natural disasters, cyberattacks, hardware failures, or human error. Simply having a backup is only the first step. The second step, and arguably the more important, is being able to recover the data in a timely fashion. The time it takes to recover data can have a significant impact on your business. In this blog post, we’ll discuss the high cost of slow recoveries.
The Cost of Downtime
When a business experiences a data loss event, every minute of downtime can result in lost revenue, decreased productivity, and damaged reputation. According to a survey conducted by the Ponemon Institute, the average cost of downtime per minute is $5,600 in 2017 but this cost has grown close to $9,000 per minute depending on the industry you are in. This cost can quickly add up if it takes several hours or even days to recover from a data loss event. In addition to the direct costs of downtime, businesses may also face indirect costs such as missed opportunities, lost customers, and reduced employee morale.
The Cost of Recovery Time
Recovering from a data loss event can be a time-consuming process, especially if the backups are stored offsite or require manual intervention to restore. The time it takes to recover from a data loss event can impact not only your business operations but also your ability to serve customers. For example, if your e-commerce website is down due to a data loss event, you may not be able to process orders or respond to customer inquiries. In addition, the cost of recovery time can be significant, including the labor costs of IT staff and the potential need for additional hardware or software.
To reduce the cost of recovery time, it’s essential to have a backup strategy that ensures quick and reliable recovery times. One way to achieve this is to use modern backup solutions that leverage advanced technologies such as VAST Data to not only reduce the costs of keeping backups but significantly reduce the time that it takes to accomplish the recovery.
How to Mitigate the Costs of Slow Recoveries
To mitigate the costs of slow recoveries, it’s crucial to have a backup and recovery strategy that ensures fast and reliable recovery times. Here are some steps you can take to reduce the impact of data loss on your business:
Regularly test your backups to ensure they are up to date and can be restored quickly. VAST Data can allow for the recovery verification of all data in conjunction with your backup software of choice, instead of a small subset of data due to latent read times within the backup platform.
Automate your backup and recovery processes to reduce the risk of human error. This is done by leveraging playbooks, and run books that more advanced protection software have today. Leveraging them in conjunction with VAST Data’s ability to be the target for that staged recovery, will significantly reduce the storage space needed in the event of a mass recovery event.
Invest in a robust backup and recovery solution that can handle large volumes of data and provide fast recovery times. The VAST Data platform can grow infinitely in both scale and performance independently. This ensures that if recovery performance needs to be guaranteed it will not be a trade-off for the capacity that may be required to house your backup data.
Train your employees on data backup and recovery best practices to ensure they understand their roles and responsibilities in the event of a data loss event.
By taking these steps, you can reduce the impact of data loss on your business and ensure that you can quickly resume operations in the event of a data loss event.
Gone are the days when “meeting the backup window” are the main concern for companies. The goal today is to have limited interruption to the business even in the event of a cyber-attack. Being able to recover swiftly, concurrently, and securely are the number one objectives.
