May 18, 2021 - LI Technology Solutions

Know the Risks of Not Having BDR for Your Business

litechsol on May 18, 2021

Experts estimate that humans produce 2.5 quintillion bytes of data every day.¹That is a lot of information. However, having a poor backup strategy can wipe out all or vast portions of your data in a single click. From accidental deletions and malicious attacks to natural disasters, there are multiple ways by which you can lose your business data. Therefore, make sure a robust backup and disaster recovery (BDR) solution is an integral part of your business.

When you lose crucial data permanently, the consequences can be devastating. Some costly aftereffects of data loss are:

It is your responsibility to equip your business with an effective backup and disaster recovery solution, irrespective of your business’s size, industry or location. Let us take a look at how significant backup and disaster recovery is to the following business industries:

Importance of BDR in Healthcare Industry

There can be severe complications when data loss happens in the healthcare industry:

If a patient’s health records go missing when needed, a life-saving surgery could get delayed or denied.
Without the billing records, a hospital cannot process payments.
Regulatory bodies like HIPAA slap hefty fines on hospitals for carelessly handling data. HIPAA can impose penalties anywhere between $100 to $50,000 for an individual violation, with a maximum fine of $1.5 million per calendar year of neglect.⁴

Alarmingly, the healthcare industry was the worst-hit industry by cyberattacks in 2020.³ Therefore, backup and disaster recovery are critically important in the healthcare industry.

Finance

A robust backup and disaster recovery solution is an important part of any financial institution’s growth and survival.

Financial institutions must comply with requirements put forward by:

Regulations like the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA)
Financial agency regulatory agencies like the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA)
International regulators such as the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)

An effective BDR solution is a mandatory requirement highlighted by all the concerned authorities mentioned above. Additionally, having one in place helps these institutions protect employee productivity and ensure customers quickly regain access to essential services following a data-loss event.

Hospitality

The information generated in the hospitality industry is in a precarious position. This is because the hospitality industry often invests less in backup and disaster recovery than other industries.

That said, survival in the hospitality industry can be tough. We live in an era where people check public ratings of a hotel room, even if they only plan on staying just one night. A minor dent in reputation could be an enormous blow to a hospitality business.

All critical data like credit card information and customers’ Personally Identifiable Information (PII) must be handled with care to avoid satisfaction issues and regulatory fines. Hence, backup and disaster recovery are an essential part of hospitality.

Adopt BDR for Your Business Before It Is Too Late

Avoiding data loss at any cost is vital for your business to survive and thrive. It is, therefore, highly recommended to have the right BDR provider to maintain control of business-critical data. If you are confused about how to take the first step, do not worry. We are here to help. Our BDR expertise can help your business sail smoothly without being caught in the whirlpool of data loss. Contact us now to learn more.

Article curated and used by permission.

Sources:

net
IDC Report
IBM Cost of Data Breach Report
National Library of Medicine

Business Continuity Plan 101

litechsol on May 18, 2021

If you want your business to remain competitive even during a business disruption, you need to self-reflect.

What’s your plan against the unexpected?

The truth is, that numerous threats can halt your business operations at any time. If your employees cannot quickly pivot to ensure business continuity, you won’t just struggle with competition, but with survival.

The simple solution is a business continuity plan (BCP).

What Is a Business Continuity Plan?

Techopedia defines BCP as:

“A business continuity plan (BCP) is a plan to help ensure that business processes can continue during a time of emergency or disaster. Such emergencies or disasters might include a fire or any other case where business is not able to occur under normal conditions. Businesses need to look at all such potential threats and devise BCPs to ensure continued operations should the threat become a reality.”

Benefits of a BCP

BCP empowers your business to respond to disruption(s) that could potentially affect business operations. It minimizes the impact of disruptions while also enabling you to quickly get mission-critical processes up and running with minimal or no data loss.

Being able to deliver services/products to customers despite calamities paints your business in a positive light among customers.

Essentially, BCP safeguards your revenue and reputation during a business disruption.

BCP will play an important role in a post-pandemic world. It’s likely your business will have to operate with a hybrid infrastructure, where half your employees will work from the office and the other half from pretty much anywhere.

Components of a Business Continuity Plan

A healthy business continuity plan should have the following components:

BCPs vary based on the requirements of an organization’s industry and the unique needs of the business. However, there are a few components every healthy BCP should have.

Recovery personnel

A dedicated individual should be assigned to manage the recovery process to get systems back up and running quickly.

Recovery procedure

The recovery procedure outlines the strategies to restore key business functions and helps to prioritize assets critical to business operation. These assets include equipment, IT systems, and contact lists. To protect critical assets, classify them based on their criticality to the business and define recovery objectives such as Recovery Point Objective (RPO) and Recovery Time Objective (RTO).

Data backup

Your BCP should establish how to back up data as well as the methods used for backup and recovery. Depending on RTO and RPO, as well as the granularity of recoveries required (i.e., restoration of individual files), your methods may vary.

Business Continuity Testing

BCP testing gives you insights into how prepared your employees are in case a disruption occurs. It is a risk-to-reality simulation in which employees need to work together to find a solution and recover lost data, communications technologies, or damaged property.

To keep everything running smoothly, your business should test BCP at least once a year. However, the frequency of your testing largely depends on the nature of your business, turnover rates, rapid process changes, or new regulations.

The Reality of BCP Testing

On the surface, manual testing is important to maintain a business continuity plan that works during an actual disruption. The reality is that businesses struggle to match manual BCP testing with the frequency at which cyberattacks occur.

Confused about how to move forward with your business continuity plan and testing? Don’t worry. We can help. Contact LITech Solutions now to learn more.