70% of small businesses go out of business within a year of a large data loss incident.
Proper data management is essential to any modern business. From important business documents to sensitive client information, your business’ data is one of the most valuable assets. Failing to backup your data regularly can be extremely costly when your business experiences data loss. By not backing up your data, your business has no reset point and any data that is lost will likely be lost forever. This is even more troublesome if your business has many employees because all your current operations can be halted.
So what exactly will happen to your business if you fail to backup your data regularly?
First, it’s important to recognize how easy it is for your business to face data loss. From accidental deletions to a stolen laptop or hard drive, data loss can come in multiple ways. Your business can suffer an organizational level of data loss like a ransomware attack or your storage accounts being hacked or face data loss at an individual level where one employee has mechanical damage to their device or has their device stolen.
When your business fails to back up data, you cannot recover any data lost. This means any current projects, client information and any other sensitive data will be lost permanently. This can be extremely expensive depending on the specific data lost and can have legal backlash depending on what client data was lost. Also, your business does not have a reset point. If you have a new software update that has a serious bug, you cannot go back to your data prior to the update.
How much does data loss actually cost?
The cost of data loss can be impacted by several factors like company size, amount of data lost and operational cost. For example, an e-commerce business that experience data loss will likely have additional costs due to problems with current operations like shipping. According to the IT Disaster Recovery Preparedness (DRP) Council, small companies lose $8,000, medium companies lose $74,000 and large companies lose up to $700,000 per hour downtime. 2/3rds of businesses reported losing over $20,000 per day of downtime. These costs add up in addition to the payroll for employees who are waiting for normal operations to resume. These are extremely hefty prices to pay for irresponsible management of data. Simple actions like backing up your data and having a disaster recovery plan can prevent these enormous costs.
If your business is not familiar with backing up data and designing an effective disaster recovery plan, it’s best to consult with IT professionals to assess your business’ data and create customized data management solutions. Talk to an IT professional here for a free consultation and protect your business’ data.
