In today’s competitive marketplace, one of the most mission-critical assets a business requires to be available at all times is its data.
From customer data, inventory and supply chain management information, regulatory and compliance records to employee and financial data, data can be seen as the lifeblood of an organisation.
That’s why there is no longer any ambiguity about whether data protection is needed.
When things are running smoothly, it is understandable leadership teams would have previously avoided such costs or at least deferred them to a later date. But data protection is so much more than just an IT concern now.
It’s a priority across the whole business.
Data protection is now an ‘all of business’ priority
Consumers expect businesses to be available when they need them. Business operations need access to live data for business continuity. Regulatory frameworks require certain types of business data to be available for compliance purposes. Finance teams need uninterrupted access to accurate financial data.
But what does this mean for businesses?
It means that data is a priority for the whole business, across all divisions and teams, and in all locations.
It means businesses need to be focused on being "always on". It means ensuring data is accessible to the stakeholders who need it, where and when they need it. It means having the right data protection, backup and disaster recovery in place to ensure the business can transact and operate as per usual, while meeting all compliance obligations.
There is very little difference between high priority data and normal data anymore. All business data is an ‘all of business’ priority.
The increasing threats to your data
The threat landscape is constantly evolving, and businesses are increasingly exposed to a range of threats.
While there are a variety of risks to business data, here are three real threats IT pros need to mitigate.
1) The threat of cybercrime and ransomware
According to Veeam 2022 Data Protection Trends Report, 76% of surveyed organisations had suffered a ransomware attack in the past year.
The threat of ransomware has become universally pervasive, with attacks affecting organisations of all sizes, from small-to-medium-sized businesses (SMBs) (100–249 employees) to large enterprises (>5,000 employees).
With 97% of ransomware attacks attempting to infect backup repositories as well, the threat is evolving and can well and truly be defined as a disaster. (Veeam 2022 Ransomware Trends Report)
2) The threat of malicious insiders
Malicious insiders, sometimes referred to as ‘insider threats’, consist of current and former employees, contractors, business associates or any other person with access to the systems and data of a business.
The threat refers to the risk if this access is used to destroy data, steal information, or sabotage critical systems. The malicious insider could be either acting alone or on behalf of cybercriminals.
It’s important to note that this does not include accidental human error, which is a separate but also major threat to business data.
3) The threat of natural disasters or weather events
Sometimes referred to as force majeure, natural disasters represent a significant threat to business operations and access to business data.
Recent periods in Australia have shown that extreme weather events are a real risk to business continuity. When factoring in the new normal of hybrid work with employees working in the office, at home or wherever they may be, the threat of weather events creates additional data availability issues and concerns for IT teams.
What are the potential consequences of not protecting your data?
The potential consequences of not protecting business data can stack up, and in some cases, are catastrophic. All consequences include some direct or indirect form of revenue loss.
Some of the consequences include:
Financial loss due to ransomware payments
Ransomware payments are commonly required to recover stolen data, to end unauthorised access, modification or impairment of access to data, or to prevent the publication or distribution of sensitive data.
Ransomware payments have been known to be hefty. To make matters worse, 36% of organisations that pay out a ransom are still unable to recover their lost data, according to Veeam research.
Revenue loss due to downtime
The most impactful of any downtime caused by an outage or disaster is loss of operations or production capacity. Every minute of downtime has an adverse impact to revenue.
Factored into this revenue loss is the opportunity cost, as well as the wasted labour cost. If a business is unable to bounce back from an outage quickly, in other words failing over to an off-site environment, any data that the business produces in the meantime will also be lost.
For a business that irregularly or infrequently backs up its data, the adverse consequence of losing that much data is extreme.
The cost of reputational damage to the brand
Loyal customers are not as loyal as you think. Your business has built up a loyal customer base thanks to the high quality of your products and services, and thanks to the nurturing relationship you have with your consumers.
You've worked hard on this, and it has paid dividends, with one-off customers routinely turning themselves into long-term repeat purchasers.
Except this isn't the case. When considering this from the perspective of consumers, there is little to no tolerance for inconvenience or delays. Consumers take their business elsewhere the moment they’re inconvenienced.
You owe it to your users to be "always on". If you fail in this regard, don't expect customers to hang around.
Regulatory consequences due to non-compliance
Depending on the regulations for the industry your business operates in, non-compliance with data laws can be costly to a business.
As a result of non-compliance, regulators may impose administrative fines or penalties. In addition, and depending on the type of issue, a business may also face civil liability, loss of revenue and loss of brand value.
What are some of the steps you can take to ensure your data is protected?
Here are effective ways to mitigate the risks that threaten data:
Develop data protection plans
Developing a data protection plan is a critical component to risk mitigation. When data is an ‘all of business’ priority, then Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity (DR/BC) Plans are an ‘all of business’ planning resource.
The purpose of a DR/BC Plan is to protect the company from financial loss due to an outage, downtime or disruptive event.
Back up data to the cloud
Cloud-based offsite backup can ensure your data is always available and fully protected, no matter where it resides — on servers, workstations or in the cloud. With cloud backup, a business can get physical and virtual backups offsite to a hosted cloud repository with complete visibility and end-to-end security.
Cloud backups deliver all of the benefits without the cost and complexity of purchasing and managing a second infrastructure.
Protect your business applications and SaaS
Protecting the data of the applications your business needs, such as Microsoft 365, is an important component of business continuity. While Microsoft 365 provides powerful cloud-based services within Office 365, comprehensive backup of your Office 365 data is not one of them.
That’s why you need a SaaS backup solution that eliminates the risk of losing access and control over your Office 365 data, including Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business and Microsoft Teams — so that your data is always protected and accessible.
Implement Disaster Recovery
Implementing a DR solution as part of your DR/BC Plan enables your business to store and restore backups of your data in the cloud. With a fully managed, monitored and secure cloud-based DR protecting critical data, you’re protected from events that may threaten your business continuity.
Find the right partner
Managing backups, regular testing of failovers and failbacks, compliance reporting, keeping visibility of the threats and risks to your data, backup and disaster recovery can become time-intensive and costly when self-managed.
The right partner removes this friction by unlocking a cost-effective and efficient disaster recovery solution.
Ready to get protected with future now solutions?
Here at Orro, we create 'future now' solutions that make it faster, simpler and safer for you to protect your data.
To discover how you can protect your important business data now and into the future, talk to us today!
