When it comes to a
disaster or cyberattack affecting an SMB, it’s more a matter of
when than
if. According to The 2018
State of SMB Cybersecurity report released by the Ponemon Institute, 67 percent of SMBs have been victims of cyberattacks or data security breaches. However, only 28 percent of SMBs rate their strategy to mitigate attacks and vulnerabilities as “highly effective.”
The number of
cyberattacks on SMBs alone presents a valuable opportunity for
MSPs to offer data backup and recovery as a service. However, the challenge lies in providing a personalized solution that suits the specific needs of each SMB. As an IT executive at an MSP, you should incorporate the following five best practices when building disaster recovery strategies for your clients:
- Harness the Power of Automation
Machine learning and artificial intelligence are hot topics these days, but they’re more than just buzzwords. The automation opportunities that algorithms offer are vital to a successful backup and recovery plan. If you can set it and forget it, clients will benefit. AI reduces the chance of missing something, so you can focus on the strategy and execution of critical tasks that add more value to your services.
- Use Cloud Technology
Your best friend for DraaS, the cloud protects data from a site-wide disaster by storing
backups remotely that can be used to recover data and even virtualize machines should the worst happen. It can scale out in case you or your clients need more room for data, so you’re never limited by space.
- Set Appropriate Priorities
If your client wants to use local storage, you play a significant role in helping the client decide which data is high priority and which isn’t. Since you need to balance storage costs with recovery point objectives (RPOs), you have to determine how often data needs to be backed up. Be sure to work with your client to figure out how often they need to back up mission-critical data. Depending on the environment, backups may need to be performed anywhere from every minute to once a week.
- Set a Retention Policy
After deciding on how often data is backed up, you need to figure out how long backups need to be retained. Most backup solutions provide the ability to create an automated retention schedule. Determine a schedule for the client that provides enough granularity for file and folder recovery but that accounts for storage limitations. You’ll also need to address industry mandates—for example, HIPAA data retention requirements.
- Perform Tests
Just as you would for your own data security measures, performing tests on the solutions you set up for clients is crucial. Test their backups, recovery, and security. If any one of those three components isn’t functioning perfectly, sit down and get to work. All three need to be working to ensure your client is both happy with the solution and covered if a disaster does happen. There’s nothing worse than discovering that a backup is unusable when you need it.
Organizations keep their critical information always safe, accessible, and optimized with StorageCraft’s data protection, data management, and business continuity solutions.
Get in touch with us today to learn more about our
disaster recovery cloud or check out
our partner program for MSPs.
