As the rapid shift in remote work gives way to a more consistent structure, business owners face a new challenge: Security.
With staff now using a combination of company-provided and personal devices to access corporate networks and business assets. With many employees likely working from home in the future, the corporate cybersecurity task has expanded exponentially. That being said, a survey found that 91% of businesses are reporting an increase in cyberattacks since Covid-19 began.
While there are several ways to protect sensitive data, no defense is perfect. As a result, organizations need to develop a backup and disaster recovery (BDR) strategy.
By the Statistics
After a significant natural disaster or major data breach, roughly 40-60% of small businesses are likely to close permanently. Part of the problem is a lack of planning. Many organizations struggle with adapting BDR strategies that are suitable for remote staffing frameworks. Remote workers also introduce added risk. Keep in mind, 45% of employees admit to reusing passwords across multiple accounts, this includes business and personal. For upper business managers and owners, these numbers indicate a growing need for robust BDR policies that address the current requirements as well as have the capabilities to scale up to meet emerging demands.
Boosting Recovery
Firstly, complete a frank assessment of your current BDR plan. Consider recovery time objectives (RTOs) and recovery point objectives (RPOs). While pre-pandemic figures were mostly focused on in-situ datacenter DR and backups. The nature of remote work requires an assessment of how long recovery needs to take and where it should happen first.
If RTOs and RPOs are up to today’s standards, the next step is to evaluate your existing infrastructure to meet expectations. Your BDR plan should have the capacity to handle recovery objectives both in-office and at a distance. If your business does not, a combination of on-site and cloud-capable solutions could help close the gap.
Next, businesses must consider where their data is collected and how workers should connect to this information while remote. Consider using single-source data stored on local stacks. If a natural disaster or cyberattack makes the information inaccessible, the impact to both employee performance and business revenue could be sizeable. Corporate networks should come with the same concern. If connections fail, how can remote staff keep working on their end?
Solving these issues starts with a concrete, multi-site BDR plan that backs up your information every few minutes combined with secondary connection services, such as VPNs. Remote work is now the norm, not just an exception. To learn more about the importance of backup and disaster recovery check out the resource below.
Infographic created by MXOtech
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