The Backup and Recovery Tightrope Every Business Walks [#Infographic]

Technology has spoiled far too many of us. When we turn on our desktop, notebook and mobile devices, we assume that they’ll always respond to the push of the power button.

Want to see chaos in action? Unplug a router in a busy office where workers rely on the Internet to function like their bodies rely on water to survive.

The reality is that no business likes or tolerates much downtime, but most businesses are walking a tightrope in which downtime is only a slip of the foot away.

According to recent survey data compiled by CDW for its infographic “Backup and Recovery: Walking the Line to Five Nines,” 52 percent of organizations can only tolerate one hour of downtime.

Great. So that must mean most businesses have robust, vetted disaster recovery plans in place, right? Not quite.

While 86 percent of organizations surveyed say they have backup plans in place, only 23 percent of small and medium-sized businesses say they test their backup systems daily.

The importance of testing can’t be overstated. Scott Jenkins, chief information and technology officer for Worthington Federal Bank, shared his organization’s struggles with backup testing and reliability in a story for BizTech. The company found out through testing that the backup solution it had in place actually didn’t work.

“It would have to have been a completely manual process — very cumbersome and time-consuming — and it left such room for error that it was just not workable,” Jenkins said.

When it comes to achieving true backup and recovery, every business has to plan, test and monitor IT systems on a regular basis.

Check out the full infographic from CDW for more information on how organizations can get the most out of their backup and recovery solutions.