It’s clear that the stakes for businesses facing IT disaster recovery have never been higher. The recent CrowdStrike outage – a global IT disruption caused by a faulty software update – served as a sobering reminder of how fragile our interconnected digital ecosystems truly are. While not the result of a cyberattack, this incident highlighted the enormous financial and operational risks that come with service disruptions. According to Parametrix, this outage alone may have cost Fortune 500 companies up to $5.4 billion in losses.
Outages such as this underscore the vulnerability of our systems and the urgent need for robust disaster recovery (DR) strategies. They also provide an opportunity for companies to reassess and strengthen their data reliability, availability, and resilience. Continuous DR planning can enable companies to reduce downtime, data loss and operational disruptions while maintaining business continuity by restoring critical applications and infrastructure – ideally within minutes after an outage.
UKI Sales Director & Country Manager at Hitachi Vantara.
The importance of disaster recovery planning
Not only do cyberattacks threaten business continuity, but they also impact the potential for service outages, natural disasters and even regulatory non-compliance, which can bring operations to a standstill. Yet, despite growing awareness, many organizations remain unprepared for worst-case scenarios. Too often, disaster recovery is seen as a secondary priority – until a crisis occurs.
A recent report found that this lack of preparedness is pervasive, with 22% of organizations admitting they aren’t backing up critical data. In addition, 68% of IT leaders are uncertain whether their data infrastructure could recover from a ransomware attack, while only 29% are extremely confident their employees are following their security policies.
To mitigate the risks of outages and ensure business continuity, organizations need to adopt a proactive approach to disaster recovery. This can be done through the implementation of vital strategies for establishing resilient DR plans and ensuring uninterrupted operations.
Stepping towards data resilience
First, businesses should start by conducting a thorough audit of their IT infrastructure, identifying weak points, critical systems and potential failure zones. This foundation will help tailor a disaster recovery plan that meets the organization’s specific needs. This plan should then include clear protocols for backup, recovery, and restoration, and should be regularly tested through real-world simulations and scenario-based drills to ensure it is effective and ready to be deployed when disruptions do occur.
Organizations should also prioritize building redundancy across multiple geographic locations. Creating multiple copies of data across different sites ensures that if one site fails, the data is still accessible from elsewhere. Data replication can also help to distribute the load across multiple servers, reducing the risk of any single point of failure, while continuous replication ensures that all copies of the data are up-to-date, providing consistency and reliability.
Further advanced technologies can also be leveraged, such as distributed computing. This technology allows for the distribution of tasks across multiple machines and can be scaled up or down based on demand, ensuring high availability. This means that even if there are localized disruptions, systems can continue to operate and data remains accessible.
Together, these technologies ensure that data and applications are always available, even in the face of hardware failures or other disruptions. Overall performance and responsiveness of applications can be enhanced, and by leveraging multiple, cheaper machines, the need for expensive and high-end hardware is also reduced.
Compliance and culture
It is also increasingly important to stay ahead of regulatory changes. As regulations like GDPR continue to evolve, organizations must ensure their DR strategies remain compliant. Regular reviews with legal and compliance experts are critical to navigating complex regulations and protecting sensitive data.
In tandem with all of this, enterprises must remember that disaster recovery isn’t just about technology – it’s also about people. Employees play a crucial role in preserving business continuity. Businesses should foster a preparedness culture by providing ongoing training and encouraging cross-departmental collaboration to ensure teams can respond quickly and efficiently in an emergency.
Turning risk into opportunity
Organizations that invest proactively in disaster recovery can turn potential crises into opportunities for growth and stronger customer relationships. By partnering with trusted data infrastructure providers, businesses can build resilient, compliant systems that not only survive disruptions but thrive in their wake.
As Cybersecurity Awareness Month emphasizes the need for preparedness, now is the perfect time for businesses to re-evaluate their disaster recovery strategies. By planning for the worst, organizations can ensure they are ready for anything – whether it’s a cyberattack, a software glitch, or the next big crisis that could bring the IT world to a standstill.
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