What If The World Lost Power?
What If The World Lost Power?
I want you to imagine that the entire world lost power. What do you think would happen? Total chaos worldwide would surely ensue. In the short term, things wouldn’t be all that bad, those steaks in your fridge would most likely go bad. Depending on which part of the world you live in, you may need to bundle up with blankets to stay warm due to your heater not working. So, what should you do? You need to start thinking about finding that backup generator you have stored somewhere and begin creating a plan.
We hope the world doesn’t lose power, but your business very much could. Your business should be the center of your world and it would be awful if your business lost its power to operate. No business owner in their right mind would want to be held at an operational standstill. Unfortunately, many organizations do not notice IT failures until something stops working. Within this article, we’ll discuss the various ways IT failures can have a devasting impact on your business.
Downtime and The Financial Cost
So, what is downtime? Referencing our nightmare scenario above, it is when your ‘world’ or business loses its ability to operate. IT failures can come in many shapes and sizes, such as forgetting to renew certain licenses, hardware failures, or even natural disasters.
The minute an IT failure occurs, and the second your systems go down, the clock starts ticking. Every hour, minute, and second is a waste of valuable time and productivity. No business is immune to the effects of downtime. Downtime can affect the overall success of your organization and in some cases can make or break a business. Unlike the world losing power, IT failures are bound to happen.
By preparing for downtime you could potentially save thousands or even millions of dollars as well as other incalculable factors. The financial aspect of IT failures is often the greatest motivating factor for most businesses. If your business cannot operate, it cannot generate revenue. RTO (Recovery Time Objective) is something you should consider if you ever face downtime. RTO is the maximum amount of time your business can tolerate without incurring a significant financial loss. Referencing our nightmare scenario again, think of RTO as the maximum amount of time those steaks can sit in your powerless fridge before they go bad.
Backups and Disaster Recovery Planning
Backups are just as important as backup generators when referencing our nightmare scenario. Backups are physical or virtual copies of data that allow you to access any past data. Having backups is vital to preventing data loss in the case of the following IT failures: Data theft such as a stolen laptop or data breaches, accidental file deletion, hard drive crashes, or natural disasters. Backing up your devices and data is very common and it’s only getting easier through cloud storage. Backups come in handy in case of emergencies but there are some situations that require more than just restoring data.
Although both backups and disaster recovery can protect your business from the negative effects of IT failures, it’s important to note that backups and disaster recovery are two different practices. Typically, disaster recovery plans help to regain the use of IT systems that have gone down due to natural disasters or human-made disasters.
Not having a disaster recovery plan in times of disastrous IT failures can lead to interrupted service which could negatively affect your employee/customer satisfaction and reputation. It’s crucial to not wait for disaster to occur as it’s not a matter of ‘If’, it’s a matter of ‘When’. If you do have a disaster recovery plan in place, you are in a better spot than most! You should be testing your disaster recovery plan regularly to prepare for the real deal.
Cost or Investment?
The majority of business owners often view IT as a cost since it is hard to hold the tangible value that IT can bring. It is no longer a discussion, IT needs to be recognized as a crucial element of every business. With less IT interruption, your team can do what they do best. If you ever wondered how much downtime could cost your company, check out our RTO Calculator or speak with an Aqueity recovery expert here.
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