Running a business today often relies upon a huge amount of data. Whether that be data about clients, employees, contracts or financials, most, if not all, of this information will be stored and tracked digitally.

Suddenly losing access to all that information is a panic-inducing possibility that doesn’t bear thinking about for most business owners, but it’s essential to ensure your organisation has strategies in place should disaster strike. Developing these strategies can be a complex process, and the range of services available can each offer their own set of benefits and downsides.

One of the first steps to take is to get an understanding of the different threats and points of failure faced by your current IT systems. Several factors need to be considered; one clear point of failure is an IT systems vulnerability to power surges or fluctuations. Depending on the size of the business and the amount of equipment kept on site, different steps need to be taken to ensure any issues with power don’t lead to a catastrophic failure or data loss. Working via a cloud-based system that takes regular backups, like the service offered by Microsoft’s Office 365, can help solve this issue. Because data is stored remotely, it doesn’t rely on any one machine or network, and won’t result in data loss should a machine fail for any reason.

Cloud Services do vary by provider on how they protect data, and it’s worth double checking what each service guarantees as part of the deal, but it’s often part of the package for business clients that their data is stored with geographical redundancies in place. These redundancies ensure the data is protected in the event of emergencies on the client’s end, or even if servers fail in one of the providers’ data centres.

Another vector for potential disaster is the risk of a virus, malware, or ransomware attack. Cyber security threats can enter the system through an external source, often the internet, and cause immense harm to business infrastructure and its ability to operate effectively. Like the virus’ biological namesake, digital viruses can spread quickly throughout an organisation’s network, and there have been several horror stories in recent memory of large organisations having huge amounts of essential data held to ransom. In 2017, around 60 NHS trusts were hit with a version of the infamous ‘WannaCry’ ransomware, affecting healthcare professionals' ability to access patient records and other essential data.  

To maintain an effective defence against potential intrusions, it’s important to invest in reliable cyber security measures. There is a plethora of different anti-virus programs available, that differ in the exact safety measures and services they provide. Conducting a thorough evaluation of the specific needs faced by an organisation is useful in sorting through all the options. Making sure whatever choice you make is regularly kept up to date is also essential, as viruses and malware are regularly changed in order to try and circumvent security measures, meaning an out-of-date anti-virus program is almost as bad as not having any at all.  

Both the use of cloud services and anti-virus software are examples of preventative measures a business can take to safeguard data in the event of a disaster. While they are both important parts of the toolkit, they make up just single components of a wider disaster recovery plan. Some options can both serve as a precaution against a disaster occurring, while also playing an integral part in restoring operations to normality should the unfortunate occur. Any business, but especially those that deal with high volumes of sensitive data, should have a bespoke strategy in place to make sure any downtime incurred by security failures, data breaches or otherwise unforeseen circumstances is kept to an absolute minimum.  

If you want to talk to a professional team about how you can develop one of these plans or talk through some of your options for data security, contact the Pearce IT Team today!