In our last post, we talked about the importance of establishing a disaster recovery plan and proper backup systems. While preventative measures such as firewalls, two-factor authentication, employee education, and strong password requirements are a critical piece of cybersecurity, they’re not enough to keep your business safe. As cyberattacks are rapidly increasing in frequency and sophistication, you need to be prepared for the worst-case scenario.
It’s not a question of “if your systems are breached,” but when.
This is where disaster recovery comes into play. In order to create an effective disaster recovery plan, you’ll need to determine your recovery time objective (RTO) and recovery point objective (RPO). Not only do these two factors affect actions you take after a disaster, but they also dictate actions you must take before anything goes wrong.
RTO determines how long your systems can be down before your business is severely impacted. This is not a singular measurement, but rather a measurement used for each individual system or application. Some systems may be able to be down for multiple days without affecting your business. For other critical systems, however, even a few minutes can be damaging.
Just one hour of downtime costs $260,000 on average.
For businesses that have strict uptime requirements, RTO is critical to determining priorities and measuring the overall effectiveness of your disaster recovery plan.
RPO determines how much data can be lost without severely impacting your business. This too is measured in time. Essentially, it asks the question “how many hours of data can you lose?” Many businesses utilize web servers that offer automatic 24-hour backups. In this situation, a business could lose a day’s worth of data at most.
While that might be fine for a general website, it’s not good enough for data storage systems, sales tracking software, and more. Certain businesses may require near-zero RPO, ensuring that virtually no data is lost in the event of a crash.
A disaster recovery plan is a great start in preparing your business for the worst-case scenario, but it’s only one part of a true Business Continuity Plan. This covers backup management, facility closures, infrastructure changes, and more. With a quality business continuity plan in place, businesses can truly be ready for just about anything hackers and malware programs throw their way.
Not sure where to begin? We can help.
Expedient Technology Solutions is hosting a free webinar backup solutions and disaster recovery on May 19, 2021 at 9am.
All you need to do is click the button below and register. Can’t make the time or date work? Not a problem! We’ll be recording the webinar and posting it online. However, you’ll still need to register to receive a link.
If you prefer a more hands-on consultation, we’re here to help. Our IT consultants in Dayton, Ohio can discuss your needs and help determine what actions to take next. Contact us today to get started.