Disaster Recovery

The Importance of Data Protection in Disaster Recovery

When one speaks of disaster recovery, the most common and primary thing that comes to mind is fiscal recovery. Questions like “how will the company survive after an earthquake leveled a major business center in the country?”, “how will the company move on with the loss of a key officer?” and “how can the company pick itself up after a massive information theft?” are actually some of the ‘what-if’s’ that pop out.

What most people are concentrating on is the financial side of the business, but what about data recovery? Disaster recovery is not just all about picking up after a loss of building, personnel or revenue, it also covers threats associated with data protection. In this digital age, when information has literally become a currency, data recovery is one very important subject to discuss when one talks about disaster recovery. In fact, data recovery is just one chunk of a broader disaster management system called BCP or business continuity planning.

The very purpose of incorporating data recovery in the company’s disaster recovery program is to minimize data loss. While risks of natural disaster and theft are unavoidable, protecting the company’s valuable database will help it pull through by having a comprehensive back up system. Reportedly, most companies spend a quarter or twenty five percent of yearly expenditure for disaster recovery. Companies that depend largely on databases like banks, schools, airline companies and hospitals are constantly duplicating data storage to lessen the chances of massive data loss.

Data protection as part of a company’s disaster recovery program is a serious matter. During the last fifty years, it is recorded that forty three percent of those companies that lost their computerized records never revived operation. There was a fifty percent that managed to continue for two years but eventually closed. And research revealed that only six percent of these companies were able to pull through.

Disaster situations that need to be considered in data protection are the following: database testing, employee or union strikes, legal issues, computer malwares or viruses, human error, equipment failure, software crash, theft, deliberate or organized disruptions, terrorism, power failure, fire and natural disaster.

The threats are just too serious to be left out. To help you protect your data, there are companies that offer off site data protection services. Your company may also procure emergency data recovery equipment such as surge protector and uninterruptible power supply. Now is the right time of protecting your data from risks. Make database back-up a big part of your disaster recovery plans.