Network Communications News (NCN) May 2017 | Page 20

HOT TOPIC
Business continuity
and disaster recovery
In the UK and the rest of Europe we’re lucky to be relatively low risk when it comes to the types of
disaster that might first come to mind, says Andrew Stuart, managing director, EMEA at Datto.
A
lthough businesses
here are unlikely
to have to deal
with the impact of
an earthquake or
hurricane, something as simple
as a power cut or broken water
main can have the same impact
where it comes to the availability
of IT networks, and therefore the
running of the business.
Unfortunately for smaller
and medium sized businesses,
particularly those that might
have just a single location, the
overall impact can be far greater
than for multi-nationals, as larger
organisations are more likely
to have a level of operational
redundancy that can keep the
business going in the event of
a disaster affecting a single or
limited number of locations. In
addition, depending on the sector,
IT downtime could even put
personal safety of workers or the
public at risk if IT systems that
control physical access or relate
to accurately locating personnel or
other assets are compromised.
20 | May 2017
The disasters that might affect
the running of an organisation’s IT
networks can be loosely put into
one of three types:
System disasters
Datto’s 2016 Cyber Resilience
Report found that 66 per cent
of companies in 61 countries
experienced at least one cyber
incident in the last year, caused
primarily by phishing and social
engineering, malware, spear
phishing, denial of service, and
out of date software, rendering the
organisation’s own network either
contaminated or inoperable.
Natural disasters
Although Europe is at a
comparatively low risk, due to
global climate change, natural
disaster occurrences – like
flooding – have increased and
intensified. Natural disasters have
cost the global economy $2.5
trillion since 2000 and 80 per
cent of businesses that do suffer
a major natural disaster go out of
business in three years.
Human error disasters
T h e m o s t f re q u e nt , m o s t
co m m o n , a n d of te n m o s t
d et r i m e nta l c a u s e of d i s a s te r s
t h at c a n d i s r u pt b u s i n e s s
co nt i n u i t y i s u n i nte nt i o n a l
h u m a n e r ro r. O u r re s e a rc h
h a s s h ow n t h at 7 0 p e r c e nt
of s u cc e s sf u l at ta c k s o n
b u s i n e s s e s c a m e f ro m i nte r n a l
t h re at s l i ke e m p l o y e e s a n d
co nt ra cto r s . E ve n s m a l l d ata
l o s s e s – t h o s e w i t h fewe r t h a n
1 0 0 f i l e s l o s t – c a n re s u l t i n
co s t s of te n s of t h o u s a n d s of
pounds. A single poor choice by
a s i n g l e e m p l o y e e c a n l e a d to
c ata s t ro p h i c d ata l o s s .
The common theme with these
scenarios is that they all concern
access to data, or loss of existing
data. Broadly, the approach
to mitigating the risk of these
affecting the business concerns
the rapid availability of a recent
recovery point.