Business Resilience: The Myth Buster Guide

Think you’re protected? Think again.

True business resilience requires a more Creative solution.

Are you absolutely sure you have all the pieces of the puzzle needed for true business resilience?

Growing data sets, continued app development and infrastructure complexity are making it harder than ever for IT teams to protect organisations from operational, reputational and financial risk should the worst happen. Technology and the threat landscape are constantly evolving, meaning your tried and trusted recovery strategies may no longer be up to scratch.

Not all business resilience solutions are created equal, so make doubly sure you’ve got all the facts straight.

Myth: We’ve got plenty of cybersecurity tools protecting us

Reality:

  • Threats still slip through the gaps, usually due to system complexity and alert fatigue.
  • Businesses often fail to respond to threats quickly. 55% admit to ignoring alerts to prioritise other activities and it takes an average 206 days for firms to identify an attack.
  • Organisations can’t carry the cost of highly-skilled cybersecurity staff providing 24/7 cover.
  • Over-stretched IT teams are ill-equipped. Over a quarter lack confidence they could spot a cyberthreat, and 1 in 3 admit to not knowing how to use security tools effectively.

Myth: We’ve got a DR plan so we can easily recover

Reality:

  • When did you last run a successful DR test and fully recover? 1 in 5 organisations admit they never test their DR plan.
  • DR plans must be tested regularly to ensure they work properly. But the impact of testing on data replication, business operations, finances and resources deters many organisations.
  • Over half of IT leaders feel challenged to protect and ensure recovery for homeworkers and mobile devices.
  • Common DR technologies are not able to reduce RPO and RTO to required levels. Over 70% of IT leaders lack confidence in their ability to recover and restore data to meet business needs.

Myth: We backup regularly to a secondary site, we we’re covered

Reality:

  • Snapshot-based data replication is typically used to back up data every 4 hours. Gaps between backups led to 45% organisations suffering permanent data loss after breach.
  • Without adequate layered, air-gapped cloud security, restrictive account access and data isolation strategies in place, data backed up offsite is still vulnerable to cyberattacks.
  • Growing technology complexity combining on prem, multi or hybrid cloud infrastructures, containers, laptops, VMs and SaaS-based applications makes it ever more challenging to protect data.
  • Many organisations struggle to optimise backup systems to ensure adequate granularity to meet business needs, regulatory requirements and compliance audits.

Myth: Microsoft takes care of all our Office 365 data

Reality:

  • Microsoft focuses on managing O365 infrastructure – the responsibility for data protection and longterm retention is yours.
  • Standard retention time by Microsoft is limited – by default, items are only kept and can be retrieved for up to 30 days.
  • After a cyber-attack or malicious employee act, you’ll be unable to roll back to a point in time backup prior to the incident to recover your data.
  • If you delete a user, that deletion is replicated across the O365 network, meaning their entire account data is erased forever.
  • Teams records often get mistakenly deleted or retention misapplied, removing access to the messages, files and associated applications.

Myth: We’ve already for a remote working set up and our IT department will have users up and running again in no time

Reality:

  • In house IT teams have to balance recovering your organisation’s critical IT services with getting users online again.
  • Not all hybrid working IT infrastructures can support high-performing remote workers, putting projects at risk of delay and financial overruns.
  • If disaster strikes, your employees could lose access to vital data, tools and applications, leading to frustrating and costly downtime.
  • Without solutions ensuring your data is safely stored, backed up and rapidly recoverable, your business will be hit by data loss and disruption, damaging client experiences and your reputation.