When it comes to the livelihood of your business, you probably have some measures in place to make sure your business can withstand a disaster. That’s where business continuity and disaster recovery plans come into play. These plans are critical to the survival of your business, which is why they’re so important to have.
However, there are still businesses who don’t have any precautions in place. According to a survey by Mercer, 51% of businesses don’t have any kind of business continuity plan in place. The same can be said for disaster recovery. As a business owner, you need both a business continuity and disaster recovery plan, but what’s the difference between the two? In this blog, we will explain each type of plan and how they differ.
The Differences Between Them
#1 – When the Plan Takes Place
The first key difference between business continuity and disaster recovery is when each of them can be enacted. When it comes to business continuity, the plan is focused on both preventive and recovery steps and can take place before or during a disaster. Disaster recovery is more specific. This plan takes place after a disaster occurs. Business continuity is the bigger picture of making sure your business continues to run, and disaster recovery is one of the pieces of that big picture.
#2 – What Each Plan Involves
Different from business continuity plans, disaster recovery plans involve a variety of strategies from safety procedures to data backup procedures. For disaster recovery, there are a few elements that go into the plan. Some of the elements include:
Creating a disaster recovery team
Assessing all the risks
Determining your critical business procedures
Creating your backup and offsite procedures
A business continuity plan is a bit broader, since it covers everything about your business. Some common elements of a business continuity plan include:
An analysis of all your critical business functions
Identifying potential threats
Developing strategies to avoid risks
Contact information for key and emergency personnel
#3 – They Have Different Goals
The goals between the two plans are a bit different. For business continuity, the primary goal is to make sure that your business can run during a disaster. Some other objectives are to reduce the financial loss and make sure critical services are uninterrupted. As for disaster recovery, the primary goal of the plan is to minimize the amount of downtime and data loss you experience. Establishing alternate ways to operate your business and complying with regulations are other objectives of a disaster recovery plan.
How Do Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Work Together?
They both help businesses prepare for the worst. Together, their purpose is to make sure your business can bounce back from disruptions and continue to be successful. When you don’t have a business continuity and disaster recovery plan, you leave your business vulnerable to disasters – and several other issues that eat into your organization’s productivity. Consider this: the Federal Emergency Management Agency found that 40% of businesses never reopen after a disaster. So it’s important that you account for how you will recover when an issue does arise.
We know everything from disaster recovery to business continuity can be overwhelming. Instead of stressing over these plans, leave it to the IT experts. Here at NetAssurity, our experts are ready to tackle your IT concerns so you can focus on what matters – your business.
Check out our past blogs and contact a member of our team to learn more about disaster recovery and other great cyber tips.
Do you have any data recovery system in place right now? It may not be something you think about often, but it’s extremely important that you’re taking care of your data. Unfortunately, most of the time, we don’t realize our data is in danger until it’s too late. The Identity Theft Resource Center found that there were over 1,800 data compromises in 2021, making it a new record. In other words, there’s never been a more critical time than the present to protect your information.
We know how important your business data is. That’s why we want to make sure you’re protecting it. Having a proper data backup and recovery plan can ensure the safety of your data and keep your business running efficiently. There are many benefits to having a strong data recovery system. Here are just a few of them.
The Advantages of Data Backup & Recovery
1. Strong Security
Having strong security is one of the most important aspects of data recovery. First off, there’s always a risk of cyberattacks impacting your business. But as your IT systems grow, the likelihood of becoming vulnerable only increases. And as you probably know, these cybercriminals can get into your systems and steal data without you knowing. To keep your data secure, more and more data recovery solutions offer users the chance to encrypt their data to give it an extra layer of protection from bad actors.
2. Ease of Management
Having ease of data management can create consistency in your data backup process. If your employees are backing up their computers themselves, you have no guarantee that their backups are up to date. With a strong recovery system, you can avoid inconsistent and irregular backups. When your business has an updated backup system, there is always a copy of what you need, and your employees can get back to work faster if they do experience disruption.
3. Replication You Can Rely On
Data backup and recovery software offers replication you can rely on. You can make multiple replicas of your data and store them securely offsite, that way you always have a backup. In the event you lose your data, you can always go back and find the replica of that file so you can continue working. Replicating your files saves you time and helps with productivity.
4. Controls Costs
Let’s say you lost your data; you would probably have to hire someone to recover what you lost. Hiring a third-party service could cost you time and a lot of money depending on the severity. Having an updated data recovery system can help you retrieve your data faster and save you money from having to hire someone to help.
5. Builds Customer Trust
Your customers always want to make sure that their data is safe. If you experience a data breach, it could lead to some distrust and hurt your reputation. A solid and reliable data recovery system can help keep your customers’ data safe and give you a cushion to fall back on in the case of data loss.
Your business data is an important asset, so make sure you’re taking the proper steps to keep it secure. The first step to protecting your data is to set up a strong data backup and recovery system. With the right system in place, it’s the best way to set yourself up for success.
We know how complicated it can be to handle all your data alone, so that’s where we come in. The IT experts at NetAssurity in Tampa are pros when it comes to data recovery. It’s the perfect time to learn the basics of keeping your data secure so your business can continue to grow and succeed.
Want to read more about data recovery and other related topics? Check out our other blogs to learn more, or contact our team to continue the conversation.
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