It is all too easy to assume that good conditions will last forever. However, if there is one lesson to be learned from the events of 2020, it is that disaster can strike at any time. The coronavirus pandemic has shown the world that disasters aren’t just in the movies.
Though the pandemic has had a minimal impact on data reliability and cybersecurity, businesses need to be prepared for all kinds of crises. Nature is capable of throwing the best laid plans completely out the window. Floods, hurricanes, tornadoes and similar phenomena can instantly shut down networks and confound recovery efforts. Likewise, human interference like cyberattacks can cripple business operations.
Organizations of any size need strategic disaster recovery (DR) plans to ensure business continuity and keep catastrophic losses to a minimum. Designing, implementing and updating such plans can be quite complex. Enlisting the support of specialized services, such as those provided by colocation data centers, simplifies the DR plans by requiring the service provider to take responsibility for specific elements of the plan.
Remote hands keep your business running
The major risk of an on-premise data backup strategy is that it’s just as vulnerable as the rest of your assets. A single bad storm or malicious attack could knock your entire system offline. To quickly and effectively deal with a disaster event, you would need people on site during the disaster to keep things operational. That’s just not possible for many businesses, particularly during instances where workers are safer at home. Therefore, geographical diversity of DR location is extremely important. In addition, stakeholders need to ensure that DR systems are tested to prove that they will actually fail over correctly should an incident knock the main data center offline.
In fact, a 2019 report from the Ponemon Institute revealed that 39% of SMBs have no incident response plan in place. In addition, 35% of SMBs report that a lack of in-house expertise is one of their top challenges for maintaining effective cyber-security. Furthermore, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has reported that 40-60% of businesses fail to reopen after a disaster.
Colocation data centers play a role in helping customers meet their disaster recovery goals. It is typically much more cost effective and practical to locate an organization’s disaster recovery equipment in a high quality, well-operated colocation data center, than to attempt to build and operate such a facility.
Remote hands services provide on-site experts who can respond rapidly to precise needs 24x7x365. These experts are available to offer:
- Maintenance including storage media swaps, device resets and loopback testing.
- Repair services such as hardware and software troubleshooting, equipment replacement and circuit migrations.
- Cabling services like installation, testing and tracing.
Remote hands can augment or completely replace on-site IT personnel. While disasters may only happen occasionally, remote hands are alays available for routine services. After all, hardware simply doesn’t last forever. According to a recent Backblaze report, 1.89% of all hard drives failed in 2019. If something like this goes wrong, you’ll want someone available to solve the issue as soon as possible.
Just because a business hasn’t experienced significant downtime doesn’t mean it’s not possible. A 2019 LogicMonitor survey of IT decision makers found that 96% had experienced at least one outage within the previous three years. There’s just no way to be certain that your hardware will remain in perfect working condition. It’s best to be prepared for any eventuality.
Reliable colocation data centers provide peace of mind
Colocation data centers meet strict definitions of emergency preparedness. On-site staff conduct numerous tests weekly, monthly, quarterly and annually to ensure everything is 100% ready for any contingency. Plus, service level agreements guarantee uptime, compliance and audit requirements.
When considering DR solutions, colocation data centers just make sense. Redundant power, cooling and connectivity systems ensure downtime is kept to an absolute minimum. According to a 2019 survey by Statista, 25 percent of respondents worldwide reported the average hourly downtime cost of their servers as being between 301,000 and 400,000 U.S. dollars. The cost was even higher for 57 percent of companies, with 14 percent losing more than five million dollars per hour. Every minute of downtime that can be avoided represents considerable savings.
A disaster can take many forms, from floods and hurricanes to cyberattacks and insider threats. An effective disaster recovery data center site can give you peace of mind with the certainty that no matter what happens at your primary location, your data – and your business – are protected. To learn more, contact the data center experts at Sabey.
