2017 may not be over yet, but it’s never too soon to be looking towards the future – especially when you’re preparing for potential disasters. Here are some of the more concerning statistics from the past 12 months that we feel you should be aware of for the coming year:
1. Only 8% of Australian businesses are “ahead of the curve” when it comes to having a mature disaster recovery strategy.
Businesses with mature strategies use archiving applications with offsite replication or retention policies, standby or virtualized servers, and have a recovery time of 5 hours or less. Leading organisations have a recovery time of 1 hour or less, with near-zero RTO/RPO.
What does this mean for your business? It’s likely your disaster recovery strategy has a considerable amount of room for improvement. You may already realise this – but if not, you need to pay more attention to your data backup and disaster recovery strategies in 2018. Regardless, just know you’re not alone.
2. Hardware failure is the #1 cause of data loss and/or downtime.
45% of total unplanned downtime is caused by hardware failures, followed by loss of power (35%), software failure (34%), data corruption (24%), external security breaches (23%), and accidental user error (20%).
What does this mean for your business? Outdated technology poses a significant risk for your business, acting as a potential point of external access or vulnerability. It’s time to invest in better equipment (computers, phone systems, etc) that operates smoothly and securely. By backing up your data to the cloud, you’ll be able to access it off-site if your office loses power.
3. Only 20% of businesses are very confident that their current data protection solution can keep pace with the speed and capabilities of solid-state storage drives (SSDs).
Yet many businesses have chosen SSDs over hard disk drives (HDDs) due to their ability to transfer files faster and accommodate greater bandwidth.
What does this mean for your business? When you update your equipment, you need to update your data protection as well. By adopting a hybrid model and backing up your data to both your drive and the cloud, you’ll be able to recover your data safely, securely and quickly.
4. Malicious attacks rank first (80%) for emerging trends which may include organisations in the long run.
The influence of social media (53%) ranks second, which reflects its growing impact on organisation’s reputation. Reputational damage (like the ATO has been suffering) is being increasingly seen as a consequence of various disruptions. The loss of key employees follows third (50%).
What does this mean for your business? Reputation and talent management are becoming important considerations for businesses. Bad press and the loss of key staff can be just as disruptive and damaging as cyberattacks and power outages. In terms of your business continuity plan, crisis management and transfer roles and responsibilities should be two of your considerations.
5. 95% of IT service providers agree that ransomware is a problem for small businesses.
90% of IT service providers have reported recent ransomware attacks on small businesses; with 60% of MSPs reporting 1-5 ransomware attacks, and 40% of MSPs reporting 6+ attacks. 97% of IT service providers predict that attacks on businesses will increase significantly in the next 2 years.
What does this mean for your business? If it’s not already, your business’ cybersecurity should be a priority. With attacks expected to increase in 2018 and beyond, you never know when or how you’ll get hit. Make sure you have the proper firewalls, data encryption, authentication protocols, and ransomware detection tools in place.
6. 63% of small business owners feel a ransomware attack could lead to business-threatening downtime.
48% of IT providers blame phishing emails for ransomware attacks, while 36% blame the lack of employee cybersecurity training within small businesses.
What does this mean for your business? Train your employees on security best practices, such as types of suspicious emails to avoid and how to create safe passwords. If you’re not sure about best practices, you can get started with free online resources or consult with a managed services provider (like us)!
7. An average of 2.36 TB of data is lost when using multiple vendors.
Interestingly, using four or more data protection solution vendors contributed to the highest average data loss of 5.47 TB. The second-highest average loss of data was 4.02 TB, resulting when no data protection solution was implemented. The lowest amount of data loss (0.83 TB) occurred when only one data protection solution vendor was selected.
What does this mean for your business? If you decide partnering with a managed service provider is the best decision for your business, choose to work with only one who understands and specialises in data protection solutions and disaster recovery. If you aren’t already working with an MSP, we’d love for you to contact us to get protected by 2018.
