IT Disasters: Cost and Preventive Measures

Animals have inbuilt warning system designed by nature to alert them before any natural disaster hits them. They escape the disaster area before the event happens. But human beings have no such faculty. Instead, they have been given brains to make the necessary arrangements in case they face disasters of any kind.

With the advancement of technology and flow of Big data all over the world, having data backup isn’t a luxury anymore, it’s a necessity. Businesses have huge amount of data stored and processed everyday which includes information of all the employees, payrolls and business deal records to name a few. Mostly business owners, overlook the chances of any disaster striking their computers or servers. Similarly, the home computer users don’t consider it while inserting data. But when the disaster strikes, it is already too late.

Heralds of Disasters

IT disasters can happen due to following factors (examples):

• Server failures
• Power failures
• Network glitches
• Natural disasters
• Cyber attacks
• Terrorism acts

There are many other calamities that may hit and you can lose your precious data that is the lifeline of your business. According to Casey Morgan, 31% of computer users lost their data due to events that were beyond their control. 37% of disasters involved cybercrimes and malware. So the rate of natural disasters hitting is much lower than the disasters fueled by man, directly or indirectly.

Cost of IT Disasters

The cost of IT disasters is very high and people come to know about it when it’s too late. The only ways to avert these disasters is to preempt the precautionary measures and make solid backup plans whenever database is stored. It has been unfortunate that 34% of companies that do install backup plans fail to test their backups and ends up facing high cost of IT disaster. According to Casey Morgan, $26.5 billion is lost annually due to IT related catastrophes. This is a huge number and is bound to increase with the passage of time (Casey, n.d.).

Preventive Measures

To avoid such calamities, constant vigilance is a must. Once you prepare for such misadventures and make backup plans, they are not averted cent percent. You have to re-evaluate your backup plan on regular basis to keep up, not only with the latest backup technology, but also with the latest malicious attacks. You have to keep in mind, with the advancements in technology; cyber criminals also grow in sophistication and finds new ways to hack your system.  Following measures may avert imminent IT disasters:

• Always have a backup plan while computerizing your data.
• Keep evaluating and testing your backup plan to maintain effectiveness of your strategies.
• There should be consistency between your data security measures and the recovery plans you have established.
• The policy makers should be prepared beforehand, for any kind of potential disaster that may hit any time. This may include technical failures, natural calamities, security breach or Human error.

Cost of IT disaster is much too high to ignore as routine malfunctions that can be overlooked. They need to be considered very seriously and on urgent basis as such disaster can not only cause monetary loss, but can also put company’s reputation at stake.

References:

Casey. (n.d.). Infographic: The High Cost of IT Disaster. Retrieved Feburary 3, 2017, from StorageCraft Recovery Zone: http://www.storagecraft.com/blog/infographic-high-cost-disaster/