Natural Disasters a Reminder to Back Up Business Data

The 2017 hurricane season has been and continues to be cataclysmic. It won’t be long before blizzard season is here, and these days, it’s always wildfire season. Mother Nature never seems to run out of ways to test human resilience.

In addition to the very real risks to life and limb posed by calamitous weather events, there’s also the threat to a business’ ability to operate. Downtime as a result of flood, wind or fire can result in data loss, which for some companies, is enough to put them out of business.

There are steps businesses can—and should—take to protect themselves, and MSPs are ideally positioned to guide them through these measures. One absolutely critical measure is data backup and recovery. 

It’s such an obvious necessity that you’d think businesses wouldn’t need reminders to back up their data. Yet, study after study has proven the message about the importance of backups often doesn’t get through. Or it is simply ignored.

Take this recent survey by Barracuda Networks^®. It revealed that 66 percent of Office 365^® users rely on the Recycle Bin for backup. Let that sink in for a moment. Perhaps they don’t realize data in the Recycle Bin has an expiration date. Only one third of survey participants use a data protection solution for their Office 365 deployments.

Playing with Fire

And that’s just Office 365 participants. It gets worse: Another study found that 58 percent of businesses simply aren’t prepared for data loss. 

These businesses are literally playing with fire. Or wind. Or rain. A big enough storm knocks out power and causes downtime for a number of days, and you can bet some of these businesses won’t recover. It’s been estimated that up to 60 percent of businesses cannot recover from catastrophic data loss.

If these numbers are scary, they should be. As an MSP, you should share them with any clients who resist the idea of comprehensive backups or take a cavalier approach to them.

Business Case

Keeping in mind what’s at stake, business survival, MSPs should always be ready to argue the following points with clients who still don’t grasp the importance of data backup and recovery:

• Every business, no matter how large or small, needs a data backup strategy.
• Cloud-based automated backup solutions are ideally suited to SMBs with limited IT resources.
• Backing up isn’t about just saving data, but also business continuity, hence survivability.
• Any business continuity plan must include backing up data from mobile devices.
• Downtime on its own is costly, but it can be devastating without a business continuity plan.
• While data backup incurs business expenses, it’s still less costly than a catastrophic data loss—especially one that puts a client out of business.

In light of the number of natural disasters we’ve already seen this year, it’s a good idea to remind clients of the need for backing up and business continuity. If you haven’t talked about it lately, start that conversation today.

Pedro Pereira is a Massachusetts-based writer who has covered the IT channel for two decades. Recognized as one of the first journalists to cover managed services, Pedro continues to track, analyze and report on the IT channel and the growing MSP partner community. 

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