20 April, 2021

All too often, we hear from customers about ransomware attacks and failures in their backup or disaster recovery. Adequate preparation requires experience, staff time, money, and energy. It also requires taking an honest look at current systems and processes.

Businesses cannot have the attitude of “out of sight, out of mind.” The stakes are too high, when it comes to backups and disaster recovery.

Problem: Not having properly architected backups and no disaster recovery plan.
Companies face a multitude of risks, including cyberattacks and natural disasters. Most businesses think that their backups are fine and they do not need a disaster recovery plan. However, ransomware alone dictates that everyone must have faultless backups. With that said, backups and disaster recovery are quite different. Today’s technology advances afford everyone the ability to have good disaster recovery.

Solutions:
Architect your backups: “You’re only as good as your last restore.”First, make sure your backups are architected properly: 3 copies, 2 locations, 1 offsite at a minimum.
Then, build the process and develop routine checks from files to systems.
Ensure your retention is what is required for your industry.
Lastly, make sure to test at regular intervals.
Architect your disaster recovery: “You’re only as good as your last disaster recovery test.”Begin by designing and selecting the correct hardware/software components for disaster recovery.
Determine RPO and RTO.
Finally, test at regular intervals to stay informed of ever-changing risks. Fail over and then fail back.
ICG’s experienced architects build solutions that are “right sized” and “right budgeted” for your business.

Problem: Having one internet connection.
End users rely 100% on your internet connectivity. Companies may have insufficient connectivity, which increases risk.

Solutions:
Start with a connectivity audit. This determines the level of risk the business takes with only one connection.
Then, diversify your ISP and provide high availability. This ensures internet connectivity is load-balanced across the connection, so when one connection is down, the backup connection will kick in.
ICG’s solution engineers are ISP vendor agnostic. And, we maintain relationships with all of the major providers, which means we can get you the best product for the lowest price.

Call your sales rep today to learn more about how ICG can prepare your company for worst-case scenarios.