There is an almost comical laundry list of problems that all businesses should be prepared for, but what’s not funny whatsoever is what happens when you fail to do so. The term “BDR” is often used as an umbrella term to describe what kind of preparation your organization needs, and today, we want to dive into some of the details that you should know.

Backup and Disaster Recovery (BDR)

A BDR strategy accounts for your data’s survival and determines how best to resume your operations after a disaster strikes. Data backups are spare copies of your data prepared for when you need them most, ready to go. On the other hand, disaster recovery is how your business responds to problems like natural disasters or cyberattacks to return to acceptable operations as quickly as possible. This minimizes downtime and its sneaky costs, which could escalate quickly.

With both of these in place, businesses can continue operations even in dire circumstances. However, failure to utilize these systems leaves your business susceptible to any random disaster.

BDR is Incredibly Important

Your business has a lot to lose if it suffers from a severe downtime-causing incident. For example, a cyberattack, natural disaster, or even a hardware failure could lead to data loss. Heck, even a human error on your network could potentially be problematic.

In any case, your business must take advantage of proactive precautions to prevent the worst of these scenarios from occurring. Your reputation depends on it, after all. Customers don’t really want to work with businesses that don’t take their data seriously. A BDR solution ensures that these situations do not impact your company’s current and future bottom line.

How to Implement a BDR Strategy

With the right strategy, BDR can help your business stay safe from the myriad of threats out there. We recommend that you utilize the 3-2-1 backup rule:

• At least three copies of your data exist at any given time
• These copies exist on at least two different storage mediums
• At least one copy is kept in offsite storage, ideally the cloud

It doesn’t stop there, though. You still have to make sure that the system is working as intended by regularly testing your backup systems. You should simulate potential scenarios to see how your solution responds to them, then adjust as needed. In this way, you should have a solid idea of how a potential disaster would (or wouldn’t) interrupt your business processes.

All Businesses Can Use BDR

Your company’s data is its most valuable asset, so treat it like one with a BDR solution that makes it a priority. If implementing BDR on your own feels like a major task, First Column IT can help. We would love to work with your business to protect it from potential disaster scenarios.

Learn more today by calling us at (571) 470-5594.

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