You’re on the right track starting with backup.  Every business today should have some type of backup product in place, and most businesses are familiar with it in general.   But, you knew a “but” was coming, while backup is necessary, is it enough?  Is it enough for businesses to protect themselves against costly downtime?  And, is it enough for you to ensure recurring revenue.  Quite simply, no.

It’s well known that businesses are creating more data than ever, about 2.5 quintillion bytes per day according to some research.¹   Datto has previously identified this influx of data as “The Perfect Data Storm”.  There is more data being created, the value and reliance on data is increasing, and there is a greater risk of losing the data. 

The risks are everywhere, leaving no business immune to the possibility of downtime caused by a disaster, whether it’s manmade or natural.  While hurricanes and storms get the most press, in actuality it’s your office (or cube) mate that’s the more likely culprit.  58% of downtime at large-volume data sites is due to human error.²   Whether it’s a network outage, server failure, or human error, odds are it’s not if a business will experience some level of potential downtime, it’s when.  And backup alone will not keep a business operational should a server fail or a virus invades.  Only 27% of businesses are extremely confident in their ability to get their business up and running in a “reasonable” amount of time following a disaster.³   This is an unacceptably low number, don’t you think?  The upside of it, however, is the opportunity it means for MSPs.

This leaves the door open for you to solve a timely and critical IT problem that delivers tremendous business value.  Value, as defined in an Inc. article is, “…not the amount of product for the price, but the financial impact of the purchase compared against the purchase cost.”  When you look at what traditional backup cannot deliver and compare it to the expense of downtime, traditional backup alone does not represent value. Can businesses risk a potentially failed tape backup, or a week-long recovery, when the average cost of downtime exceeds $160,000/hour?⁴

Datto has put together some of the top differences between Traditional Backup and Intelligent Business Continuity in a new infographic—check it out. 

Blog by Holly Wainwright, Director of Marketing, Datto

1. ViaWest
2. Enterprise Data and the Cost of Downtime,” IOUG, July 2012
3. InformationWeek, 2013 Backup Technologies Survey
4. Aberdeen Group

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