Business Continuity
Business continuity can face major time and data related disadvantages during occasions when you have to face with a disaster. From in-house breakdowns to natural disasters, it is difficult for even seasoned professionals to predict with absolute accuracy what turn of events the future might bring. For a business firm, there is nothing worse than losing the saved data and the time needed after a disaster to bring everything back into order. The financial losses from such disasters alone can be mountainous, but the good news is that it doesn’t have to.
Differences between in-house and IT managed services
In order to prevent a situation where a business has to lose out on its daily continuity, you can opt for either an in-house disaster recovery system or choose an external backup source. Although some companies prefer the in-house variety, research shows that in the long run, this may actually be counter-intuitive. An IDC study revealed that businesses that chose not to outsource faced up to $4 million in losses after a disaster. Such losses encompassed various aspects of the business including sales and marketing, finance, e-commerce and others outside of just data loss. In addition, in-house, disaster recovery requires your company’s employees to be well educated and prepared to use such alternatives when disaster strikes. There is also a need to train your employees for readiness against future disasters in operating and handling disaster recovery management systems. The same study showed that companies that chose to outsource their backup management faced losses amounting to $1.1 million per disaster, a startling reduction in comparison to in-house disaster recovery operations. Overall, companies preferring in-house disaster management usually spend around 32% more than those that prefer to outsource to IT managed services.
With the emergence of Cloud storage and secure online data backup services in small to mid-ranged business (SMB) markets, adequately priced data management is no longer a hassle. There are a variety of packages available, with prices ranging from a few cups of coffee a month to a hundred dollars. More importantly, the benefits of having your data backed up externally include the ability to quickly resume operations within 24 hours at latest after a potential disaster. In order to effectively understand and analyze what components of your organization are deemed most critical in business continuity, you can perform a business impact analysis (BIA). By better being aware of which functions are absolutely required for smooth functioning of your organization after a disaster, you can quickly prioritize and attempt to get back to business operations as quickly as possible.