6 Indicators That You Need to Overhaul Your Data Recovery Plan
Disaster recovery planning is no easy undertaking, but it’s an important one. With a wide variety of different data recovery plans that businesses can implement, the process of determining the best fit can be intimidating. A number of organizations still neglect to adequately invest in disaster recovery – considering the resources, funding, and amount of time needed to execute a solution – even though the ramifications of a disaster can easily surpass the investment.
In spite of how much effort has been devoted to your strategy, you might think that your organization’s data recovery plan is sweeping and unassailable. Regardless, if you haven’t evaluated it recently, it’s possible that your data recovery plan needs to be updated. With that in mind, we’ve come up with six surefire signs that it’s time to update your data recovery plan:
Languishing Servers
As a server ages, it begins to deteriorate; thus, the probability of a crash tumbling an organization’s network starts to escalate considerably. This is a recovery scenario you need to plan for. Replacing a server can be challenging and costly, but doing so will boost business efficiency, leading to reduced costs as opposed to using an older server that’s susceptible to crashes.
Outsourcing the monitoring of your servers and critical data to an IT support company can help you recognize potential problems before a disaster can materialize. Approaching maintenance in this manner enables your organization to prepare for planned outages within your infrastructure, including patch installation, security updates, and service packs.
Ill-Suited Infrastructure
Small- and medium-sized businesses can often become too reliant on their in-house IT teams to track, repair, and upgrade the network and corporate IT assets around the clock. However, a lack of experience often results in the task list exceeding the IT team’s ability to execute it; this, in turn, can beget errors.
When your IT team is constantly consumed with resolving day-to-day issues, it may not be plausible for them to gain a thorough understanding of system upgrades or identify how they can affect existing systems. If this is a frequent occurrence for your business, it may be time to revamp your data recovery plan.
These circumstances make it considerably simpler to misconfigure a network and can translate into devices becoming incompatible with business-critical applications if the network can’t be accessed. When this scenario results in downtime, your staff is being paid while work is not being completed, triggering a financial loss. In addition, if all devices on the network are impacted, the organization has a bigger problem to solve, with business resources taking a negative hit.
One way to counter this situation is to partner with an IT support company that can monitor the necessary system upgrades within your infrastructure, from setup to completion. By the same token, a managed services provider (MSP) can complete a comprehensive audit of your infrastructure to figure out how data passes through the network. This will enable you to better develop your future IT strategy.
Large RPO and RTO Windows
Recovery point objectives (RPOs) and recovery time objectives (RTOs) are two key elements of a solid data recovery plan. RPOs determine how much data an organization can bear to lose in the event of a disaster. On the other hand, RTOs reveal how much time an organization can allow to pass between the beginning of the recovery process and its completion.
Minimizing RPOs and RTOs is a primary goal of IT managers. When these values are lowered, businesses undergo a lesser amount of downtime, increased productivity, reduced costs, and a diminished risk of credibility loss.
A key approach to curtailing your RPOs and RTOs is by ramping up the frequency of your backups. With a greater number of backups comes an increase in the number of snapshots of your all-important data. Having more of these snapshots naturally limits your RPOs. Escalating backup frequency also decreases your RTOs, since having recent backups minimizes the total recovery time.
Replication is also a way to help lessen RTO windows. In replicating your data, you will retain a copy of it to revert to should a disaster occur, which lowers your RTOs. When using an off-premises secondary server, your RTO will be limited to the amount of time it takes to switch over from one server to the other. Your RPO will be determined by how often you replicate your data. Replication at a higher frequency results in a lower RPO. Simply put, minimizing RPOs and RTOs can reap substantial benefits for your business.
You’re Making Use of Multiple Data Recovery Tools
Using a wide array of recovery tools can be a contributing factor in a lagging data recovery plan. This technique suggests an incremental strategy, a disjointed group of tools intended to function independently of one another and on separate schedules. The more diverse your disaster recovery resources are, the more likely it is that a certain element of your plan will go awry at an inopportune time. Merging these disconnected systems is vital in order to alleviate the risk and simplify the recovery process.
Overdependence on On-Premise Backups
In the event of a natural disaster, equipment failure, or power outage, any backup files kept on-premises will be unavailable. In addition, ransomware has progressed to the point where it can automatically remove any on-site backup files and encrypt the original files. Due to this possibility, implementing a comprehensive backup plan is an exceptional way to preemptively secure your data from disaster.
One method to contemplate putting into action is the 3-2-1 backup strategy. This involves maintaining three copies of any set of data, two copies of which are stored on local devices, such as a server and an on-premise backup appliance. One copy is then kept off-site in an online storage space in the cloud or an equivalent location.
You Haven’t Tested Your Data Recovery Plan In a While
Having a data recovery plan is all well and good, but it means nothing if you can’t prove that it actually works! To verify that your plan is effective, you must thoroughly test each step of it.
With repeated testing, you’ll be well-informed as to how your organization will respond and be affected by a disaster that undermines business continuity. Testing also makes allowances for any weaknesses in the plan to come to light, providing the information you need to adjust the plan as necessary.
Final Thoughts
The value of having a rock-solid data recovery plan has never been more evident than it is presently. To minimize the amount of time spent scrambling amidst an emergency, use the COVID-19 outbreak as an opportunity to closely inspect your business continuity plan. Take the time to upgrade and test the plan to make sure that you and your business will be ready the next time disaster strikes.
Need help getting started? We can help! At DataGroup Technologies, recovering your business data is our top priority. No recovery is too big or too small for our expert team! Call us today at 252.329.1382 or contact us here to see how we can help you #SimplifyIT!
