Can your business survive a system crash?

Between natural disasters like storms and earthquakes, and cyber dangers such as phishing scams and malware, there are lots of threats out there to business data security and continuity. If a superstorm were to strike again in the Maitland area tomorrow, would your business lose everything? If a computer virus were downloaded by a naïve, though well-intentioned employee this afternoon, could your company come crashing down?

Can your business survive a system crash? | cyber security support
The faces of team members when your website goes down.

Last month, our team at Imagine Now IT hosted a business brunch for local business leaders to help educate them on how to avoid cyber security issues and the importance of backing up data to protect information and intellectual property. Being proactive on data security is the best prevention for both natural disasters and cyber hazards as there’s no foolproof way to guarantee that either won’t affect you or your business.

Keeping with the theme of security and disaster prevention, we wanted to look at some data protection and backup facts which should help you to evaluate how safe your business is at the moment. Regardless of how big or small your business is, your data will be essential in the running of it. Our team of IT experts strongly recommend having multiple backup options in place, and the use of cloud computing- more on that later.

IBM completed a major study on companies that experienced major data loss and found that 43% are never able to reopen for business, and 51% will close within two years. Disturbingly, only 6% will make a full recovery and survive long term. When you consider the fact that “down-time” can cause wasted salaries, damaged reputation and financial loss from sales and other expenses, it’s no wonder the repercussions of I.T failure can be so serious.

To ensure your business would be in the 6% of survivors come tragedy, backup is essential. It’s the most critical player in business continuity. We recommend having three places, one local (on site) and used daily, a backup on another device (disconnected) in the same locality and one cloud back up. Imagine Now I.T. provide cloud services to our clients. Some of the advantages of this also include:

  • Cloud services such as Office 365 can run entirely independent of the physical location of the business, meaning the information can be accessed from home or while on the road.
  • Extra protection through automated backup and comprehensive file management. No manual effort required.
  • It is efficient and affordable to accommodate large amounts of data. You don’t need to compromise on quality even if your resources are limited.
  • Customer protection… not only could your business be impacted by system compromise, but your clients could be too if sensitive information stored on your computer is stolen. You can even face legal action in this event.
  • Fast and complete data restoration. With cloud computing, if the worst were to happen, the retrieval process should be relatively easy.
  • Your peace of mind! Effective and efficient data backup systems are an investment in and an insurance policy for your business. The sense of security you feel knowing your data is safe is priceless.

A client testimonial received from Kis Marketing during the superstorm of April 2015 highlights the advantages of cloud computing and back up perfectly:

“During the biggest ‘Storm of the Century’ Imagine Now I.T. was what gave me peace of mind. As I watched footage on Facebook of our businesses street going underwater in the 2015 natural disaster, I knew that even if our office was destroyed all of our intellectual property was backed up, safe and secure. We could even work remotely and still access all the information we needed to service our clients, thanks to our cloud server and back up from Imagine Now I.T. As a business owner that peace of mind is golden.”

– Cristen Cable – Managing Director – Kis Marketing

If your business isn’t already taking advantage of cloud services and back up, act now BEFORE disaster strikes. Chat to a member of our team today for more information on how we can help to disaster-proof your business!

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