The truth behind downtime: Data Backup and the State of Business Continuity

No business wants poor data security. No business wants to ignore business continuity worries outright—it doesn’t matter whether you’ve got 1,000 employees, or just 10—it’s just a fact of doing business in the digital age.

The unfortunate truth, however, is that small and medium-sized businesses don’t have the same numbers to work with when it comes to equipping themselves. We all understand that just because smaller businesses might not be able to outfit themselves with the same IT armor, doesn’t mean that the next time severe weather peels through the state, it’ll pass over the SMBs and only affect the corporations.

It’s not just about keeping your data protected, either—making sure you get back to business quickly after an accident is equally crucial, which is why Newmind (and many IT providers approach businesses with continuity in mind, rather than just security and backup.

Don’t scoff at downtime

According to Aberdeen Group research, the cost of downtime across businesses of all sizes averages out to $163,674 per hour, with small companies losing ~$9,000 per hour, medium companies $215,000 per hour, and large companies losing almost $700,000 every hour that they’re down!

Research also shows that, while forces of nature (blizzards, tornadoes, and worse) can certainly wreck house where IT damage is concerned, they actually only account for about 10% of IT downtime across the board. So what’s the real bull in the china shop?

Human Error

At 45% of downtime damage, humans are, in fact, the most dangerous things you can put in contact with your data! This encompasses a huge smorgasbord of data calamity—server malfunctions, malware infections, even something so small as an inopportune *click* of the delete button—that could run your business into serious expenses, and that’s without even getting into legal concerns over recordkeeping.

The best kind of downtime is no downtime

At the end of the day though, there are a multitude of threats that could be endangering your data and setting your business back hours, or even days, depending on the loss.

So don’t wait by the weather channel for the next polar vortex—check your continuity now, because the greatest threat is coming from inside your office every day!

Still interested? Check out our ebook on evaluation and recovery strategies, or join us for a free live webinar with Datto on the subject.