SMBs & Data Loss
Topics
Many
SMBs consider customer retention to be one of the keys to
success.
Yet often these firms don’t seem to appreciate the risks and
repercussions of
data loss and other types of disasters on their client base and on the
health
of their company.
According to a recent study by DTI/Price Waterhouse Cooper, more than fifty percent of small companies neglect adequate BC (Business Continuity) plans or lack backup and retention policies. This study also points to another sobering statistic: 70 percent of small firms that experience a major data loss go out of business within a year.
What
you
should keep in mind is that data loss and disasters occur more often
than is
generally realized, from simple application and user-error issues to
full-blown
data center outages. For example, if your email system is disabled, the
ramifications can be widespread. The loss of critical business
processes and the
accompanying communication failure can cause impaired productivity,
missed or
delayed business transactions, and dissatisfied customers.
Research
in 2010 by Gartner states that the average cost to a small business for
a
single incident of downtime is $US10,000. Moreover, costs attributed to
server
downtime can quickly mount and become a significant expense to a small
firm. In
addition, server outages and similar disasters have far-reaching impact
beyond
basic costs. A 2009 IDC survey found that two out of five SMB customers
switched vendors after they decided their vendor’s technology was
unreliable.
For
example, a recent Imation survey of IT managers found that when it
comes to
something as simple
and potentially devastating as email viruses, 23 percent of companies
surveyed
are not confident they could restore lost data. Vulnerability on the
security
front and its negative impact can be equally profound.
Threats such as cyberattacks and worms can wreak havoc on your company’s data infrastructure.
Threats such as cyberattacks and worms can wreak havoc on your company’s data infrastructure.
In
a
current CDW-sponsored survey of 200 small business IT managers, data
loss from
malicious external threats emerged as the number one security
challenge. And
the IDC-sponsored annual Disaster Preparedness Report states that SMBs
spend an
average of $51,000 a year on information protection, including computer
security, backup, recovery and disaster preparedness. In
every instance related to business efficiency, protecting against data
loss and
implementing effective DR are crucial components to the viability and
success
of your company, or its failure.
As
you
move toward re-thinking your approach to data protection and retrieval,
here
are some key points to keep in mind:
1) Evaluate
your needs: Assess
which applications and
components are critical to your processes. Then, identify the types of
threats
that you need to confront to protect these assets, i.e. malware,
viruses,
unstable physical conditions, network vulnerabilities, etc.
2) Rely
on experienced advisors:
Outside resources exist to advise you
on a variety of issues: Backup planning, automated protection
solutions,
network alternatives, and server virtualization, to name a few.
Kerry Doyle 2011 All Rights Reserved