SMEs may fail to weather natural storms

Raynes: Tape is the bare minimum

As the summer merges into autumn, we may see more storms, winds and floods. Do most small businesses realise the effects that this kind of weather can have on them?

Most SMEs use in-house IT to store all their data and emails, and if anything happens to this equipment, it can be out of action for hours, if not days.

Most SMEs do not have the resources to cope with downtime, so are risking loss of profit.
Small businesses may think they are doing enough by having some form of back-up procedure, such as tape-based storage.

This is a bare minimum. Tape backup relies on human intervention, as tapes need to be swapped regularly, taken off-site and stored properly.

If someone forgets to change the tapes, leaves them in the office at the end of the day, or even takes them off-site but leaves them in the pub on the way home, the whole system is rendered useless.

Even if a tape-based business continuity solution has been implemented properly, recovering from a disaster can still incorporate lengthy downtime.

Tapes usually only store files and folders. If the servers themselves have been stolen or destroyed, new ones must be acquired and set up before the tapes can be used.

Companies are often uninterested in looking at business continuity until it is too late.

Many SMEs may not know there are alternatives to tape for disaster recovery, or, if they do, they think that these products are too expensive.

Resellers can supplement and replace traditional backup with cost-effective options that take the technology off-site, and store data in the cloud.

This may be easily accessed in the event of server downtime. Instead of buying large IT systems outright, SMEs can outsource their disaster recovery IT. They can streamline IT operations, allowing staff to concentrate on their core roles instead of worrying about changing tapes and testing the solution to make sure it will work in a disaster.

For resellers, it can be a source of recurring revenues. And as the service is automated and uses existing internet connections, once the customer has signed up, the reseller can step back.

As SMEs realise just how much they rely on their IT systems, there will be a growth in interest in technology that can help them to function after a disaster.

Brett Raynes is managing director at Backup Direct