Whether you own, operate, or manage a business, the last 18 months have been incredibly tough. No matter your company’s size or industry sector, chances are you’ve had to navigate something: the impact of a global pandemic, the hardship of remote work, the suffering of natural disasters, or the ordeal of a cyberattack.
Across North America, companies continue to face these challenges head-on. Some have achieved unexpected success, while others have succumbed to the pressure. Some have overcome day-to-day hurdles while lacking a plan for the future. And some have used this unprecedented time to make operations more resilient.
No matter where your business falls on that spectrum, there are several critical ways to respond to threats: reliable data backup procedures, flexible disaster recovery protocols, and dependable continuity plans that all add up to comprehensive business protection.
Many decision-makers know the drill by now: ransomware scams continue to escalate, while data breaches lie in wait just a single click away. Hardware and software failure could be exacerbated by human error. Internet downtime could affect day-to-day work. And depending on your geographic location, hurricanes, fires, tornados, floods, earthquakes, and power outages could be an ongoing risk.
Although many of us hoped 2021 would be a smoother year than 2020, many of these threats remain. The question is how to respond:
- When disaster strikes and your physical office closes, will your employees be empowered to work remotely?
- If a phishing scam compromises company passwords, will multi-factor authentication prevent unwanted intrusions?
- If data is decrypted or lost, will you be able to restore it from remote, redundant, and reliable backups?
This last question is the most important—especially as ransomware becomes more and more common, striking businesses of all sizes in all industries. No matter what happens to threaten your company’s critical information, reliable backups can save the day. Rapid recovery means you can get back to work quickly, too, enabling users in any location and on any device to access the information they need securely.
In the business world, preparation is paramount. No matter how big your company is or what industry you operate in, success isn’t automatic. Short-term gains don’t happen by accident—and long-term stability doesn’t involve luck.
- The average cost of downtime across all industry sectors is $5,600 per minute.
- 93% of companies without disaster recovery go out of business after a breach.
- 96% of businesses with disaster recovery can fully recover from an attack.
- 52% of data loss incidents are caused by human error.
- The average cost of a ransomware attack has risen from $7,000 in 2018 to $41,000 in 2019 to $200,000 in 2020.
- Between 40% and 60% of businesses do not reopen following a natural disaster.
- Of those that can’t resume operations within 5 days, 90% fail within one year.
- 1 in 5 companies spends no time maintaining a disaster recovery and business continuity plan.
- If you lost access to critical client and financial information for a day, a week, or a month, would your business survive?
- If you don’t have data backups in place, how would you respond to a natural or manmade disaster?
- If you suffered a ransomware infection, could you rebuild your data infrastructure without paying the cybercriminals a ransom?
Don’t know the answers to these questions? You aren’t alone. There are different answers for every business—and different ways to put those answers into action. What’s important is that you address these issues proactively with the help of a trusted IT partner. That way your company is better prepared the next time disaster strikes.
At CMIT Solutions, we’ve spent the last 25 years helping clients across North America protect their important data, plan for inevitable interruptions, and keep their businesses running. Backing up files and folders is no longer sufficient; businesses big and small deserve comprehensive data backup, recovery, and continuity solutions that can protect any company from any negative impact.
We work with our clients to design purpose-specific, image-based data backups that protect your business, whether it runs off on-site machines or cloud-based applications. We help our clients safeguard their information and stay up and running, no matter the threat.
We do more than defend your data, too; we empower your employees to work smart every day while helping your company plan for long-term success. How do we do it? Contact us today to find out.