Posts tagged: backup

Disruptions and threats to businesses are becoming increasingly prevalent, making business continuity planning an essential aspect of any organisation’s strategy. Organisations must be prepared for the unexpected, from cyber-attacks and natural disasters to supply chain interruptions. In this ever-changing landscape, staying informed on the latest trends and best practices is crucial to ensure your business stays resilient. This blog post highlights four key trends in business continuity that you should consider integrating into your strategy.

 1. Data protection takes centre stage

As data has become the lifeblood of modern businesses, ensuring its protection is paramount. A data breach or loss can have severe consequences, including reputational damage, financial loss, and regulatory penalties. The growing importance of data protection has made it an integral part of business continuity planning.

Organisations must implement robust data backup and recovery strategies to ensure their critical information is safe and easily accessible during a disaster. Regularly testing these strategies is also crucial to identifying potential weaknesses and ensuring that the systems in place work as expected.

In addition, businesses should consider implementing advanced security measures such as encryption, access controls, and multi-factor authentication to protect their data from unauthorised access. Raising awareness about cybersecurity best practices among employees is also vital, as human error remains a significant contributor to data breaches.

2. Embracing cloud-based recovery services

Cloud technology has transformed how businesses operate, and its benefits are preserved in business continuity planners. Cloud-based recovery services offer a cost-effective, scalable, and agile solution for organisations looking to ensure their operations remain uninterrupted in the face of disruption.

By leveraging the cloud, businesses can store their critical data and applications off-site, ensuring they are accessible even if their on-premises infrastructure is compromised. Moreover, cloud-based recovery services can be rapidly deployed during an outage, allowing companies to resume operations with minimal downtime.

When evaluating cloud-based recovery services, it’s essential to consider data sovereignty, security, and compliance with relevant regulations. Working with reputable cloud providers that offer robust service level agreements and have a proven track record in data protection and recovery is crucial to ensuring the effectiveness of your business continuity strategy.

3. The adoption of AI and automation

Artificial intelligence (AI) and automation technologies revolutionise how businesses approach continuity planning. These cutting-edge tools offer numerous benefits, such as predictive analytics that can identify potential risks before they materialise, allowing organisations to mitigate them proactively.

AI-powered platforms can also assist in automating the recovery process, reducing the time and resources required to restore operations after a disruption. By analysing large volumes of data, AI can identify trends and patterns that may indicate potential threats, enabling businesses to make data-driven decisions to bolster their resilience.

In addition, automation technologies can help streamline routine tasks related to business continuity, such as updating documentation, conducting risk assessments, and testing recovery strategies. By automating these processes, organisations can ensure that their continuity plans remain current and effective while freeing staff to focus on more strategic initiatives.

 4. A focus on employee well-being

In times of crisis, a company’s biggest asset is its employees. Ensuring their well-being during a disruption is a moral responsibility and critical to maintaining business continuity. A workforce that feels supported and cared for will likely stay engaged and productive in adversity.

Organisations should develop comprehensive plans to support employees during a crisis, addressing remote work arrangements, mental health resources, and clear communication channels. Regularly updating and testing these plans is essential to ensure their effectiveness and instil confidence in employees that their well-being is a top priority.

5. Supply chain resilience

The globalisation of businesses and the increasing interconnectedness of supply chains have made them more susceptible to disruptions. A single event can have far-reaching consequences for organisations across industries and geographies. Therefore, building a resilient supply chain is vital to business continuity planning.

Companies should assess their supply chains, identifying potential vulnerabilities and single points of failure. Businesses can reduce the risk of supply chain disruptions by diversifying suppliers, considering local sourcing options, and implementing robust monitoring systems.

Also, fostering strong relationships with suppliers and partners can contribute to improved communication and collaboration during a crisis, helping mitigate disruptions’ impact. Investing in supply chain visibility technologies can also enable organisations to identify and address potential issues before they escalate quickly.

6. Regular training and testing of business continuity plans

A business continuity plan is only as effective as its implementation. Regular training and testing of these plans are essential to ensure all stakeholders know their roles and responsibilities during a crisis. This also allows organisations to identify any shortcomings in their plans, enabling them to make necessary adjustments.

Simulation exercises, tabletop exercises, and scenario planning are all effective ways to test your business continuity plan. These activities help staff understand the steps they must take during a crisis, fostering a culture of preparedness and resilience.

Don’t wait until it’s too late

The world of business continuity is ever-evolving, with new trends and technologies emerging constantly. By staying current on these developments and incorporating them into your business continuity strategy, you can ensure that your organisation remains resilient and prepared for the challenges.

From data protection and cloud-based recovery services to AI and automation, numerous tools are available to bolster your business continuity efforts. Furthermore, focusing on employee well-being and supply chain resilience can help you navigate disruptions with minimal impact on your operations.

Don’t wait for disaster to strike – be proactive in adopting these trends and building a robust business continuity plan to safeguard your organisation’s future.

Speak to Ci Continuity and hear about our expertise in business continuity and how, with our CiCloud, we can provide a cloud-based solution that can give you that competitive edge.

The future of backing-up data is in the Cloud. There are already many reasons why more organisations are looking to move their workloads by storing them offsite, and we can expect to see further advancements in cloud-based backup solutions that will make them even more efficient, secure, and cost-effective. Here are some of the trends and developments that we can expect to see in the future:

• Increased use of artificial intelligence (AI)

AI is already transforming the backup and recovery processes. It can automate many of the routine tasks involved in backup and recovery, such as automated test recoveries, improved efficiency and recovery times, and reduced error risk. In the future, we can expect to see AI used more extensively in cloud backup solutions, allowing for faster, more accurate backups and data restores.

• Improved cybersecurity

As cyber threats evolve and become more sophisticated, cloud backup solutions are being constantly developed to stay ahead of the curve by offering the latest and most advanced cybersecurity features. Such as,

• Real-time threat detection and response and
• Advanced encryption techniques to protect data both in transit and at rest.

At Ci Continuity, we provide BaaS and DRaaS solutions using Veeam, the market leader. Their latest release, V12, embodies these improvements—it now has enhanced detection and encryption features, plus the introduction of Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) to further secure data access.

• Greater integration with other technologies

Cloud backup solutions will likely become more tightly integrated with other technologies, such as cloud storage, file sharing, and collaboration tools. This will make it easier for businesses and individuals to manage their data seamlessly and efficiently without needing multiple tools and platforms. Ci Continuity will provide this by utilising our integrated CiCloud platform (as part of a Multi-Cloud architecture) that delivers multi-tenanted public cloud and integrated BaaS & DRaaS solutions.

• More personalised solutions

The ability to back up data into a cloud platform allows flexibility and greater choices about what and where your data is stored to allow the best value solution and, importantly, be able to recover your data when required securely. It also allows a more personalised solution for specific industries and user cases. At Ci Continuity, our backup and recovery solutions can be tailored to meet the needs of healthcare providers, financial institutions, and other businesses with specific data privacy and security requirements. We are highly certified and present on most frameworks, which means we are easy to engage with and can provide solutions to meet all regulatory stipulations.

• Greater focus on data analytics

Data volumes continue to grow exponentially, and their inherent value must be unlocked. Backup and recovery solutions are key to this process. They are becoming far more advanced at presenting the data, allowing it to be easily managed and analysed. A cloud solution can assist this capability by providing the ability to burst into temporary infrastructure, data mine/analyse the information, and then clear down the systems to minimise time and expenditure. Therefore a cloud backup solution will be a very important enabler to an organisation’s future strategic decision-making processes.

To conclude, backing up your data into the cloud will become essential to your future IT strategy. It will provide a more efficient, secure, and personalised experience than the current on-premise options. It will also offer an organisation more flexibility in managing and analysing this data, which will maximise future potential.

Speak to Ci Continuity and hear about our expertise in all things Cloud Backup and Resilience and how, with our CiCloud, we can provide a solution that can give you that competitive edge.

In 2023, cloud-based backups have become an essential part of data storage and recovery strategies for businesses of all sizes and industries. As the world continues to rely more and more on digital technology then the amount of data we produce, and store, is growing at an unprecedented rate. This makes it more important than ever to have a secure and reliable backup solution in case of data loss or system failures. Here are some reasons why our Backup as a Service (BaaS) are becoming increasingly important in 2023.

• Data security and sovereignty

One of the most important considerations when it comes to data backups is security. The Ci Continuity BaaS solution offers multiple layers of protection to ensure that your data is safe and protected. The data is encrypted during transmission and at rest, in addition there is inherent multi-factor authentication, managed access controls, and intrusion detection. This level of expertise is difficult and expensive to achieve individually within an organisation, and most small and medium businesses simply cannot afford to do it properly, and this is why the complimentary services that Ci Continuity can provide are so vital. In addition, unlike Azure and AWS, Ci Continuity are able to fully guarantee UK data sovereignty with our two data centres, located in the Southwest of England and South Wales.

• Cost-effective and scalable

Ci Continuity’s BaaS solution is a better value solution for data storage and recovery. Our cloud provides an affordable, pay-as-you-go model, which means you only pay for what you use. This is especially valuable during these current cost-saving times where there is a preference to pay on an ongoing basis for what’s consumed, rather than the upfront capex for buying new hardware that could sit mostly underutilised throughout its life. Additionally, cloud-based backup solutions can easily, and quickly, scale up and down to meet your changing data storage needs.

• Disaster recovery

In the event of a cyberattack, having a cloud-based backup solution could be the difference between your organisation’s future viability, or not. Cloud-based backups are stored offsite, the data is air-gapped and can be immutable, therefore making it far more resilient to cyber-attacks, or any other operational failure. This is far more resilient to having data purely being replicated between two environments within a single organisation’s infrastructure. We also have the capability to quickly restore the data either directly back to your equipment, or onto our own cloud DRaaS platform, or onto physical equipment that is then shipped to your preferred location.

At Ci Continuity we have a team of dedicated recovery engineers who are on hand 24x7x365 to assist with the recovery of your data. With nearly 30-years of disaster recovery experience, and a large selection of solutions, you can be confident that we would keep your data secure and be able to recover you safely and quickly following an unexpected incident.

• Accessibility and mobility

Cloud-based backup solutions offer a higher level of accessibility and mobility of your data and associated solutions. This means that you can access your data from anywhere, at any time, as long as you have an internet connection. This is particularly valuable for individuals and businesses with remote or distributed workforces, as it allows them to access the same data and work collaboratively, regardless of their location. This also means that if, after a major unforeseen event, your data is recovered into our Cloud DRaaS platform, your employees should be able to continue with their work with minimal disruption.

• Regulatory compliance

All companies are subject to strict data privacy and security regulations, such as GDPR, and certain sectors have their own specific legislation that they must comply to. Ci Continuity’s BaaS solution can help your business meet these requirements by providing a secure and compliant way to store and backup data. We hold a number of physical and cyber security accreditations such as, ISO 27001 and Cyber Security PLUS which can help businesses demonstrate their commitment to data security and privacy. A full list of our accreditations can be found here.

In conclusion, a cloud-based backup is essential in 2023 for businesses who want to protect their data from loss, theft, or damage. With the increasing reliance on digital technology, the need for secure and reliable backup solutions has never been greater. Ci Continuity provide a safe pair of hands to not only protect your data, but get you back up and running again quickly, should your business suffer a disruption.

For more information on our Backup and Recovery services please get in touch directly on 01256 378001, or email us at advice@cicontinuity.co.uk

So, just how important is operational resilience?

A recent report produced by Allianz set out their Risk Barometer for the highly regulated finance sector. From their research, they have ranked the biggest risks as:

When we speak to our customers, we often hear that they believe their operational workstreams and associated data are ‘fine because it’s in the cloud’. While their environment may be more secure with a major US cloud provider, many associated risks have just moved rather than prevented.

In addition, potentially more questions come to light because there are fundamental uncertainties around what this environment is right now and, as it is owned by another corporate body, how this may change. So, how sure are you about the following?

• Do I know where my data is being held, which exact country, or countries?
• How easily can I move or retrieve my data, if needed?
• Who else has access to my data? Can a regulatory or governmental organisation (maybe from another country) get access without your authorisation?
• Have you moved to just one Cloud supplier? If so, what would happen if that supplier cannot deliver their service?
• If you have data across more than one Cloud platform, what would be the impact of one or more suppliers not being able to provide their service? Are there any interdependencies that could have a far wider impact?

So we’ve identified where your workloads reside as also being a potential risk to the business, so then how do we make our business more resilient?

Ci Continuity can assist with this through our UK based Public Cloud and, through our 25-years’ worth of experience in data security, offering the services and solutions to ensure that your workstreams are safe, available, and recoverable. Firstly, our cloud has 100% uptime SLA, unlike Azure’s and AWS’s 99.99%, meaning that your data will always be accessible.

In addition, wherever your data sits, on-prem, in a cloud, or multi-cloud environment Ci Continuity can take a copy of essential data and workstreams and securely copy them to our Cloud. This allows us to provide an air-gapped and immutable (WORM) data set, which cannot be affected by cyber-attacks and allows the ability to recover back to your original destination or into our cloud DRaaS platform.

Our services and expertise allow us to help you identify ways to make your cloud instances more resilient, highlight any gaps in recovery plans that might impact how your business reacts to disruption, and finally, provide recovery specialists to be on hand should you suffer any downtime.

This solution is underpinned by our Cloud offering, CenterpriseCloud. We can provide the ideal location for both your primary and backup data. Here are some important take-away facts:

• We are Located within the UK only, so you know where your data is at all times
• We have zero egress charges, allowing the flexibility to move and use your workstreams.
• Our BaaS service provides a secure location for your hybrid/multi-cloud data.
• Our DRaaS service is PAYG cloud infrastructure, so it is much cheaper and ready to deploy quickly should you need to recover your important data.

If you want to understand more about how we can help you make your data more secure, check out our extensive library of blogs, contact us here, or pick up the phone and speak to one of the team today by calling 01256 378001