Disaster Recovery and Backups

MouseCalls offers backup services, as well as disaster recovery services.  While they may sound the same, they are NOT AT ALL alike.

 

There’s an important distinction between backup and disaster recovery. Backup is the process of making an extra copy (or multiple copies) of data. MouseCalls’ current memberships provide backup at every membership level.

 

You back up data to protect it. You might need to restore backup data if you encounter an accidental deletion, database corruption, or problem with a software upgrade.  It is important to have a backup solution in place. Backup protects your data in case of theft (a single laptop to office break-ins), employee accidents (deletion of an important file), or a technical issue (crashed hard drive). With this protection, you can access a copy of your data and restore it easily.

 

Backup does NOT mean you will be back in business quickly.

 

Disaster recovery, on the other hand, refers to the plan and processes for quickly reestablishing access to applications, data, and IT resources after an outage. That plan might involve switching over to a redundant set of servers and storage systems until your primary data center is functional again.  Don’t get caught up on the term “disaster” and believe it has to be a major incident. A disaster can be your entire network crashes and your employees can no longer work for the day (or longer). With a disaster recovery plan, your employees can continue to work by using the mirrored system. With your employees set, your IT works on fixing the problem with the original network.  Having an inadequate DR plan can negatively impact your organization leading to interrupted service, lost sales and revenue, high costs, potential supply chain disruptions along with possible loss of reputation due to the bad press around an outage.

 

Some organizations mistake backup for disaster recovery. But as they may discover after a serious outage, simply having copies of data doesn’t mean you can keep your business running. To ensure business continuity, you need a robust, tested disaster recovery plan.

 

If backup and disaster recovery are compared, there are several distinct differences that exist between the two:

Your organization cannot afford to neglect backup or disaster recovery. If it takes hours to retrieve lost data after an accidental deletion, your employees, customers or partners will not have access to vital data prohibiting them from completing business critical processes that rely on your technology. And if it takes days to get your business back online after a disaster, you may permanently lose customers and business revenue.  Given the amount of time and money you could lose in both cases, investments in backup and disaster recovery are completely justified.

Don’t wait for disaster to happen.  For most organizations, backup and disaster recovery strategies are absolutely critical to maintain the future of the business.  Organizations must address IT recovery by creating a comprehensive solution that encompasses people, process and technology.  Backup and disaster recovery plans can help only if they are designed, deployed and tested long before they are needed.