The latest research conducted by Symantec has revealed that the majority of SMBs have no Disaster Recovery plan in place. This survey involved over 1,288 businesses worldwide each containing between 5 and 1,000 employees.
Over 50% of companies surveyed have no disaster plan in place and 23% of companies don’t even conduct backups on a weekly basis. This is despite 65% of these companies operating within areas susceptible to natural disasters.
Twenty nine percent of companies admitted they had experienced some form of data loss in the past. Such data loss was generally found to occur through humans error, hardware failure, a natural disasters or theft.
Statistics show that the average SMB experienced 6 computer outages within the last year. It appears that despite such figures many SMBs “still think it can’t happen to them.” Says Bernard Laroche, senior director, SMB product marketing.
The main reason appears to be that SMBs simply don’t recognise IT as an essential element of their operation (41%). Although such businesses may not always be using very sophisticated software they often underestimate their reliance on their IT infrastructure. Secondly the usual story is that companies don’t tend to investigate a disaster recovery plan until some form of data loss has already occurred, and it’s too late.
It is vital that SMBs on the whole become more familiar with exactly what data they have, where the data resides and what aspect of that data it would be that would be missed most.
A solution must ensure data resides offsite, is secure and available for recovery at any time. The options include tape backup, external media and Online Backup. Of course the main advantage of backing up online over the rest is the convenience, ease of use and automation the solution allows. The SMB should also ensure that which ever supplier they opt for offers security, monitoring and support. Furthermore the supplier should help companies conduct regular disaster recovery tests in order to ensure the solution is running smoothly.
The simple fact is that SMBs cannot afford to lose data and above all cannot afford to lose critical customer information.
