The pressure is constantly on the shoulders of IT leadership to ensure that everything is running smoothly, without any downtime. The slightest disruption in the system may cause a cascade of events that may completely stop the operations of the business, leading to the frustration of customers. Therefore, the only way to achieve this is by adopting a shift in mindset, moving beyond the traditional storage of data, and adopting comprehensive data resilience.
Understanding Data Resilience vs Data Recovery in the Enterprise
Data recovery is the focus of the data recovery strategy, which is focused on recovering data when disaster strikes. Therefore, this is a completely reactive strategy, as the business is affected, the damage is evaluated, and the business is brought back online. Data resilience, on the other hand, is a proactive approach, as it is focused on ensuring that the business is able to handle the disaster without affecting the availability of the data.
The Rising Cost of Downtime for Modern Digital Infrastructure
When the business is affected by a disaster, the business feels the effects of the disaster, which is the lost revenue. However, the business may not realize that the damage is not just the lost revenue, as the longer the business is down, the worse the effect on the brand reputation of the business. The IT team is also affected, as they are forced to focus on the disaster, as opposed to focusing on innovation. The CISO of the business understands that the cost of a minute of downtime is much higher, especially as the complexity of the digital infrastructure increases.
Key Pillars of a Resilient IT Framework: Redundancy and Security
A strong framework also heavily relies on redundancy. This means that you should have several instances of your critical workloads available and functional across different geographical locations. In other words, should one of your servers fail, another should be available and functional immediately.
The other key pillar is security. Cyberattacks, such as ransomware, target backup locations. However, having an advanced threat detection and immutable storage solution integrated into your framework prevents hackers from accessing your primary and secondary sets of data simultaneously.
Best Practices for Implementing a Long-term Data Resilience Strategy
It is essential to note that building a long-term strategy is an ongoing process. This means that you should first identify your critical sets of data and their recovery time objectives. The next key step is investing in modern data backup solutions for enterprise environments. This should be accompanied by continuous data protection and failover. Testing is also essential. Many businesses believe their strategy is adequate until an unexpected event comes and proves otherwise. The last key practice is investing in ongoing IT staff training.
Securing Your Operational Future
It is essential to note that building a resilient strategy is an ongoing process. This means that IT managers should be champions of this approach. This starts with auditing your current infrastructure and identifying single points of failure. Upgrading your current IT solutions today will give you peace of mind and guarantee that your business will always be available, no matter what challenges come your way!
Lynn Martelli is an editor at Readability. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University and has worked as an editor for over 10 years. Lynn has edited a wide variety of books, including fiction, non-fiction, memoirs, and more. In her free time, Lynn enjoys reading, writing, and spending time with her family and friends.
