The act of backing up and protecting data is one of the most sensible priorities for companies today. That information is the lifeblood of those companies, and the need to defend it is just as pressing as if it were a physical asset. So why do some companies fall so far short? There is no easy answer to this question, but the fact remains that organizations are in for a rude awakening if they are struck by a crisis and don’t have the ability to get back up and running. Not committing time and effort to getting an appropriate strategy off the ground can be a huge miscalculation.
“If a plan has gone a long time without an update, it could be inadequate.”
Be sure to update
Reseller News recently interviewed backup professional Stuart Mills about the important points companies need to remember when getting ready for disasters, and he pointed out a particularly vital idea: Updating backup plans and changing with the times are important components of data protection. Some leaders may feel safe at the thought that they have a disaster recovery strategy. However, if that plan has gone a long time without an update, it could be inadequate in the face of new challenges. The problems facing business IT have evolved over the years, a fact tactics should acknowledge.
Leaders who think that it’s acceptable to never update their approaches to disaster recovery should reflect on this history of offsite recovery. Once, magnetic tapes were the state-of-the-art option, with all the mechanical problems and transport woes they entail. When cloud backup came along, numerous companies realized the power of systems that could keep their information far from the company’s own data centers without manually moving it, then empower offsite workers at home while the firm gets back on its feet. If new solutions such as this can have such a major impact on the market, it’s clear that checking in on systems periodically is important.
Unless data recovery strategies are kept current, they may be inadequate.Mills told the source that firms that fail to keep their tactics and technologies current may be hit so hard by disasters that it will essentially be as if they were not defended at all. He urged IT departments to keep up with testing procedures and make sure that their current recovery processes are capable of keeping their actual infrastructure secure. Firms that change their needs and requirements over time could be rendering their old plans obsolete, and in this age of rapid tech introduction and development, it’s very common for such evolution to go on.
Unsure of success
Checking in on disaster recovery strategies and ensuring they sill work may help businesses escape the issues they find themselves facing. According to IT Pro Portal contributor Brandon Tanner, company leaders are currently very unsure as to whether they could handle a serious data catastrophe. He pointed to a survey of U.K. organizations which found that 5 percent of business leaders are fully sure the plan they have in place is good enough. With that lack of confidence in the field, it’s clear that checking in from time to time and measuring data recovery reality against needs is the least leaders can do.
