The Most Common IT Disasters (and How to Avoid Them)

IT disasters come in all shapes and sizes. Fortunately, the right disaster recovery solution can cover almost any contingency. In this article, we’ll discuss some common sources of IT disasters and explain how your business can navigate them without coming to a halt.

Common IT Disaster Causes Include Weather, Hardware Failure, and Viruses

IT disasters can lead to lost revenue, missed sales opportunities, and devastated productivity. But they can also affect your business’ reputation and damage customer trust. To prepare for IT disasters, you need to be ready for events that include:

Bad Weather and Natural Disasters
The fragility of on-site IT infrastructure doesn’t mix well with the unpredictability of nature. Disasters like hurricanes, flooding, and fires can inflict structural damage that leaves your business completely unable to access your systems. And even when severe weather doesn’t impact your infrastructure directly, it can easily cause a long-term power outage, which can be almost as bad.
Hardware Failures
Hardware failure is one of the most common causes of IT disasters. While today’s hardware is sturdier and more reliable than ever, the laws of physics dictate that every device must age and eventually fail — the only question is when.
Software Problems
Hardware isn’t much good without software, but software provides another point of failure for your IT systems. Even high-quality software can expose your business to potential IT disasters if users fail to download patches and updates on schedule.

Hacking, Viruses, and Ransomware
If you think your business isn’t large enough to attract the attention of hackers, ask yourself: would you stake your business’ reputation and revenue on it? And even if your IT infrastructure escapes the attention of bad actors, it only takes a moment for a user to download a virus or other piece of malicious software that could incapacitate your entire system.
User Error
While hackers receive more attention, well-meaning users with proper credentials actually create more IT disasters. Human error can include everything from accidentally downloading malicious software or botching configurations to making a simple typo while putting in a command.

Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) Helps Businesses Deliver Seamless Service Through the Worst IT Disasters

The list above only scratches the surface of potential sources of IT disasters. But it doesn’t matter how a catastrophe strikes when you have a comprehensive disaster recovery solution in place. With disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS), you can protect your applications and sensitive data by creating a mirror image of your physical and virtual servers in a secure, redundant cloud-based IT services model. If calamity strikes, you can restore normal operations in a matter of minutes.

DRaaS isn’t platform-specific. No matter who developed your applications and data, a customized DRaaS solution can replicate and store them. And a cloud-based DRaaS system can duplicate your data across multiple secure sites, which means that even if more than one site fails, your business’ important data will remain safe and accessible.

Compared to traditional backup and disaster recovery methods, which require you to maintain separate IT infrastructure at an off-site location, DRaaS uses much fewer resources and is more reliable. Best of all, a DRaaS solution from the right provider is amazingly cost-effective.

At Stratus Innovations Group, our DRaaS solution costs 15 to 20 times less than a traditional backup system. With all these advantages, there’s no reason your company should miss out on the peace of mind and stability that come with DRaaS.

Stratus Innovations Can Help Your Business Implement a Comprehensive Disaster Recovery Plan

Stratus Innovations’ DRaaS for VMware and Hyper-V can deliver comprehensive protection for your business’ IT applications and data. Once we integrate our DRaaS solution into your system, it only takes about five minutes to create a failover on the Microsoft Azure Cloud.

Our DRaaS solution also monitors your system’s health and performance to ensure that your data and applications stay protected.

To learn more about our scalable DRaaS solutions and find out how they can help your business, talk with someone from Stratus Innovations Group today. To get in touch with us, just call us toll-free at 844-561-6721 or fill out our convenient online contact form.

Posted in DRaaS and tagged disaster recovery