Data centers are prone to all types of disasters. Consequently, your business should always be prepared for such emergencies. Disaster recovery refers to the process of getting all essential IT infrastructure and operations up and running after a disruptive event.
Moreover, business continuity is the process of getting the entire services in the business back to full functionality after a crisis. Therefore, if you have a good business continuity plan, your firm will properly function through any interruptions.
Companies should have an adequate budget for disaster recovery and business continuity because catastrophes are a constant threat to the growth of our companies.
What factors determine a disaster recovery budget?
The Number of Losses due to Downtime
Before allocating money to disaster recovery and business continuity, it is essential to understand the amount of money your company stands to lose due to downtime. The following factors can assist you in projecting the losses:
- The amount of downtime you have had in the past
- The risks that your business is exposed to due to its location. If your company is located in a hurricane-prone region, you always have to anticipate the disaster.
- Whether your employees can work remotely or they have to access your facility
- Whether your cyber security plans focus on the physical loss of data and hardware or outside intrusion.
The above factors will enable you to determine the amount of money your business should spend on business continuity. The actual cost of downtime will allow you to project how much availability you will need and the amount required to ensure that availability. In approximating your organization’s cost of downtime per hour, you should consider both the revenue and productivity loss.
The Amount of Data your Business can Afford to Lose
Loss of data can lead to a reduction in productivity, damage to your firm’s reputation, and fines. Consequently, it is essential for you to know the amount of data your organization can lose before facing the above consequences. This period is called the Recovery Point Objective (RPO). Therefore, it is essential to know your organization’s RPO because it determines the time you have for recovery before your business is subjected to more losses.
The Amount Spent by other Companies
An organization’s average cost of downtime correlates with their disaster recovery spending. After that, your goal should be to mitigate the cost of downtime based on the average availability of your systems.
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Your business should invest in continuity measures such as environmental monitors, offsite data backups, firewalls, and cloud-based software to ensure they are protected against some of the disasters. Furthermore, you should regularly review and audit the systems to ensure they are functioning at the maximum capacity.
This component will enable you to prevent and foresee imminent dangers. Consequently, you will have adequate time to prepare and minimize the adverse effect of the catastrophe. This can help your business save money.
You need to protect your business from both external and internal disasters. This warrants you to allocate adequate budget for disaster recovery and business continuity.
Contact us today for more information on how much money is needed to protect your organization or click here to download the Comprehensive Guide to Disaster Recovery.