Is my organization’s disaster recovery strategy ready for today’s uncertain cyber landscape? Your company has determined the recovery point objectives (RPOs) and recovery time objectives (RTOs) for all systems. You have also implemented solutions to achieve these goals. Your organization routinely performs successful Disaster Recovery (DR) tests meeting your established expectations and objectives.

The threat landscape is rapidly changing, and the businesses can’t play a waiting game when it comes to planning their data protection strategy. The stakes are getting bigger, and the attacks and security threats are a matter of when rather than if Today, downtime can cost millions to organizations and cyberattacks can bring operations to a halt and make businesses go bankrupt. Disaster recovery (DR) and business continuity (BC) have shifted from best practices to essential strategies.

Running a business is no easy feat, and it's made that much harder by the threat of natural disasters, data breaches, or cyberattacks that can happen at any given moment. Such cases can lead to delayed business operations, financial or legal problems, or even business shutting down. So, how can businesses prepare for the worst? The answer lies in implementing a Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BCDR) plan.

Last year, 95% of organizations faced some kind of data outage or disruption. The impact of these incidents was overwhelming, with an average cost of $1.7 million per incident. This statistic shows how important it is for organizations to have a data safety plan. Organizations need robust measures to ensure data resiliency and effective disaster recovery. One such solution is cloud-to-cloud restore. Backup is the key to recovering and restoring your data in such scenarios.

Businesses today rely heavily on the cloud infrastructure provided by Amazon Web Services (AWS) to drive innovation, enhance scalability, and streamline operations. However, with this reliance comes the imperative need to safeguard against potential disruptions that compromise business continuity and an organization’s reputation. This is where Disaster Recovery (DR) steps in as a critical component of any organization’s AWS strategy.

The cloud provides multiple benefits for running services and storing data. Just like with data stored on-premises, data stored offsite and in the cloud should be backed up. Data stored in the cloud is not invulnerable by default, as the risk of data loss is still present due to accidental deletions and cloud-specific threats. At the same time, the cloud can be useful for disaster recovery.

The founder of the Boy Scouts, Robert Baden-Powell, once said “Be Prepared… the meaning of the motto is that a scout must prepare himself by previous thinking out and practicing how to act on any accident or emergency so that he is never taken by surprise.” Much like the Boy Scouts, IT departments must also embrace the “Be Prepared” motto. Emergencies and accidents are no longer a matter of “if” but “when”.

In a world driven by data, the importance of disaster recovery solutions cannot be overstated. From natural disasters to cyberattacks and human errors, the risks of data loss continues to grow alongside businesses. Today, we will cover the 3 common mistakes companies make when creating a DR strategy, key steps for building an effective DR strategy for your business, and the ways Opti9 can protect your data in AWS.