RenovoData Weekly Articles

There are a lot of companies that back up data critical to their business operations using media such as tapes, DVDs and portable hard drives.  Most store their data on-site while not taking the measures to test their recovery processes to ensure that their backups have been performing properly.  Hurricane season starts June 1st.  Imagine the consequences of a major natural disaster like Hurricane Katrina, which caused catastrophic damage to the Gulf Coast of Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi.  What is the likelihood that those companies using in-house portable storage solutions will be able to recover all of their data?  Gartner estimates that a single data loss incident can cost a company an average of $10,000.  However, this amount could easily go up depending on the critical nature of the data that has been lost.  As government regulations become stricter and the technology world grows exponentially, offsite data backup has become the less costly and most secure alternative in the long run.  The increased need to store and retain mission-critical information have raised the probable costs of data loss substantially.  When companies employee a remote backup company, they do away with the top causes of data loss, which are human error and media failure. 

Companies should consider the following factors when analyzing the cost of a data loss disaster in comparison to the cost of implementing an offsite data backup solution to take care of data storage and recovery:

• Cost of company downtime
• Cost to restart in the event the business shuts down after an initial loss
• Cost of lost business and customer retention and acquisition
• Cost to rebuild customer information accumulated over the years
• Potential costs of litigation if the lost data poses a risk for the company to face legal liabilities

Businesses that choose to continue to use traditional on-site storage methods are risking their reputation and long-term business viability.  Regardless of the size of the incident, data loss threats are inevitable.  Businesses must ask themselves how prepared they will be once a disaster happens.