Hurricane Season Challenges Businesses to Get Serious About IT Disaster Recovery

Hurricane Season Challenges Businesses to Get Serious About IT Disaster Recovery, Look to the Cloud for Help in Avoiding Downtime, Data Loss

Summary: Natural disasters pose a serious threat, leading to downtime and data loss for businesses and governments. This hurricane season, hosting pioneer AIS Network is advising organizations to safeguard their sensitive data and mission-critical applications in the cloud. AISN has launched an awareness campaign to promote disaster readiness and a greater understanding of how the cloud can help businesses prepare for a worst-case scenario.

 

McLean, VA — June 12, 2013 — Deadly tornadoes, floods, quakes, fires and hurricanes pose a serious threat to U.S. businesses and governments, which is why they should prepare for a worst-case scenario now by implementing an efficient IT disaster recovery plan. This hurricane season, AIS Network, a pioneer in data hosting, is advising organizations to safeguard their sensitive data and mission-critical applications in the cloud, because it is easier, faster and more cost-effective than traditional, do-it-yourself disaster recovery solutions.

AISN is the premier hosting provider serving Commonwealth of Virginia executive branch agencies as well as many multi-national corporations subject to the most stringent regulatory requirements for compliance, security and responsiveness.

“If your servers are knocked out, typically, your mission-critical and customer-facing applications and sensitive data are all inaccessible. How much unplanned downtime can your business sustain?” said AISN CEO Jay Atkinson.

“Downtime and data loss can cripple a business. The cost of only a minute of downtime may easily be thousands of dollars and a damaged reputation.After disaster strikes, many businesses that experience significant downtime never recover and are forced to close their doors for good.”

Atkinson noted that weather conditions are not always a root cause of disaster. Everyday occurrences such as hardware failures, security breaches and cut power lines are equally likely to result in IT downtime and data loss.

“Don’t wait until a natural disaster, service interruption or human error threatens your company,” Atkinson cautioned.

“Business continuity planning should always include IT backup and disaster recovery. It’s never too late to begin planning for a worst-case scenario now.We’re telling businesses to evaluate your IT infrastructure, prepare for potential data loss, document the critical steps needed to protect and recover that data, and then test your plan routinely.”

 

Managed Cloud Backup and Disaster Recovery Is Cost-Effective

Last October, Hurricane Sandy slammed into the United States, severely impacting millions of businesses and governments. The storm resulted in significant deaths and an estimated $71.4 billion in damages – the sixth most costly hurricane in U.S. history.

Because of that tragedy, Atkinson said, many IT professionals are taking a deeper look at how the cloud can fit into their backup and disaster recovery solutions.

Atkinson says that fully managed, state-of-the-art disaster recovery and secure online backup technologies such as those powered by Microsoft Hyper-V, System Center 2012 and Windows Server 2012 can enhance data protection by eliminating tape backup altogether and expediting disaster recovery in the cloud – typically, at a cost savings.

Atkinson said that do-it-yourself approaches to backup and disaster recovery carry unexpected and hidden costs. A fully managed, cloud-based approach enables organizations to protect more data, more frequently, and do so for a predictable monthly cost. Other benefits include:

  • the ability to replicate your entire infrastructure in a remote location
  • rapid scaling based on changing conditions
  • faster recovery times
  • more frequent testing with support
  • reduced backup storage costs
  • little or no need to travel to the recovery site
  • fewer operational hassles
  • more control and less complexity

 

AISN Launches “Are You Ready?” Disaster Recovery Awareness Campaign

To promote awareness about the importance of IT disaster planning, AISN is launching today a campaign entitled, “Are You Ready?” Through its outreach efforts, AISN hopes to underscore the compelling need for organizations to protect their sensitive data and applications from disastrous events and will encourage them to consider a cloud-based approach as a more affordable, efficient and secure alternative to traditional backup and recovery methods.

“In today’s highly regulated environment, having in place a tested and proven IT disaster plan that meets even the most stringent requirements is expected,” Atkinson said.

He noted that Microsoft’s virtualization technologies are making it simpler and less costly for companies to comply with stringent regulations governing electronic storage and access to data — such as those rules defined by Sarbanes-Oxley, Gramm-Leach-Bliley, the Health Insurance Profitability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), FISMA, NASD and NYSE.

Atkinson called on more organizations to elevate the importance of IT disaster recovery planning within the context of developing an overall business continuity strategy.

“Good business continuity planning should always include an IT disaster recovery plan that covers data loss and recovery. It should also provide for a regular schedule of online backups to the cloud – also preferably a cloud in a different geographic location. Your disaster recovery procedures should be planned and tested meticulously. And then, businesses should be ready to take proactive measures whenever local, state or federal disaster warnings are issued,” Atkinson said.

“AISN takes considerable care in designing our customers’ data protection and recovery systems for the highest levels of compliance, reliability and scalability. Into any of our custom plans, we integrate a comprehensive set of security measures and practices to keep our customers’ data protected and safe.”

 

Cloud-Based Disaster Recovery Webinar to Be Held June 20

In conjunction with the “Are You Ready?” campaign, Atkinson said that he and his team will present next week a complimentary, live webinar and Q&A session. Entitled “Are You Ready? How to Protect Your Data and Applications From the Next Frankenstorm,” the webinar will be held on June 20 at 2 p.m. EDT. Registration is online.

The session will help participants understand why safeguarding data and mission-critical/customer-facing applications in the cloud is simply a better idea than traditional tape backup and do-it-yourself disaster recovery. They’ll learn:

  • Why a disastrous event can put you out of business
  • How to mitigate data loss
  • How the cloud fits into disaster recovery
  • Steps toward implementing an IT disaster recovery plan