Backups and disaster recovery – is your business ready for the worst-case scenario?

A BDR plan is designed to protect your critical data from loss or damage and to help you get back up and running quickly in the event of a disaster.

Disasters can strike at any time and in any form. They could be natural disasters like floods or fires or human disasters like cyberattacks or human error.

Whatever the cause, a disaster could have a devastating impact on your business if you don’t have a BDR plan in place.

The cost of data loss

The cost of data loss can be significant. According to the HMRC Cyber Security Breaches Survey in 2022, the average cost of a cyber security breach for a UK business is £19,400.

But the cost of data loss goes beyond just the financial impact. It can also damage your reputation, productivity, customer relationships, and employee morale.

The risks are higher than ever

Recent flooding and the significant increase in cyber attacks across the UK in 2023 have sadly demonstrated that the business continuity risks for companies big and small are higher than ever.

Floods and water-based events rising

Floods, mudslides, sinkholes, pipe bursts, water main breaks and other water-based disruptions can cause severe damage. Businesses, government organisations, data centres, personal property, employees working from home, business information, office facilities and other resources can all be compromised by a flood or similar event.

Could your business survive a flood, burst pipe, or similar potential disaster? Could your business and critical staff continue to work and serve your customers effectively?

Cybersecurity breaches are increasing

39% of UK businesses identified a cyber attack in the last 12 months, with 82% reporting phishing attempts and 25% identifying a more sophisticated attack type such as a denial of service, malware or ransomware attack.

That’s why it’s so important to have a backup and disaster recovery (BDR) plan in place.

Start with a BDR plan

A BDR plan is a comprehensive set of procedures and protocols designed to protect your critical data and systems from loss or damage and to help you recover quickly in the event of a disaster.

A good BDR plan will include the following:

• Data backup: This involves regularly creating copies of your critical data and storing them in a safe location. You can back up your data on-premises, in the cloud, or a combination of both.
• Disaster recovery: This involves having a plan in place for restoring your systems and data in the event of a disaster. This plan should include things like how you will access your backups, where you will restore your systems, and how you will communicate with your customers and employees.
• Disaster-specific plans: Business continuity and technology disaster recovery plans typically address numerous potential disaster scenarios. However, as every crisis will be different, the processes for response, recovery and the return to business operations will also differ. For example, dealing with a flood will require a very different approach from a ransomware cyber attack.

How to create a BDR plan

The first step in creating a BDR plan is identifying your critical data and systems. What data is essential to your business operations? What systems would you be unable to function without?

Once you have identified your critical data and systems, you must develop a backup plan. Your backup plan should include the following:

• Backup frequency: How often will you back up your data? The frequency of your backups will depend on the type of data you are backing up and how often it changes.
• Backup destination: Where will you store your backups? You can store your backups on-premises, in the cloud, or a combination.
• Backup testing: It is essential to test your backups regularly to ensure they are working correctly.

Once you have developed a backup plan, you need to develop a disaster recovery plan. This plan should include the following:

• Recovery time objective (RTO): This is how long it will take you to recover your systems and data after a disaster.
• Recovery point objective (RPO): This is the amount of data you are willing to lose in the event of a disaster.
• Recovery procedures: These are the steps you will take to restore your systems and data during a disaster.

Executing your BDR plan

Of course, it’s not enough to just have a plan in place; you need to have the ability to back up your business data using a reliable backup process, store that data security, and be able to quickly restore data and systems back to a working state with a little disruption as possible.

Here’s what you need:

Secure data backup technology

You need high-quality data backup and recovery technology, ideally from a trusted, industry-leading provider. Your data should be backed up regularly and stored securely, protected with end-to-end 256-bit AES encryption.

Frequent and comprehensive backups

Protect your business against unknown risks by taking frequent backups of your entire business infrastructure, ensuring your data is protected no matter where it lives, from files and applications on local servers to end-user endpoints and in SaaS applications.

Reliable and rapid recovery technology

You need a recovery solution that can recover your data, servers or desktops from the cloud to a virtual environment in seconds, helping you get back to normal business operations rapidly. You don’t need to spend time worrying if your system will be recoverable or not, should the worst happen.

RAD Plus to the rescue

Our industry-leading RAD Plus service provides all this and more. RAD Plus protects your data, security, productivity, and revenue by ensuring you can recover from major issues quickly and without data loss, helping you to get back to business as usual with minimal downtime.

RAD Plus means every backup is checked – we automatically verify that backups will boot with all data intact, giving you 100% confidence in your backups.

As a RAD Plus customer, you also benefit from a team of experts who specialise in helping businesses discover potential vulnerabilities and offering the right solutions to address them, including ransomware protection and backup and recovery solutions.

This lets you focus on growing your business or enjoying your free time without any fear of losing your hard work and money to a disaster or other unexpected event.

Secure your business data today

No business is immune to disaster. But by having a BDR plan in place alongside industry-leading technology to back up and recover your valuable data and systems, you can minimise the impact of a disaster on your business.

Learn more about our data backup and recovery service, RAD Plus, or contact one of our BDR experts to get started on the journey to disaster recovery preparedness.