The Software-as-a-Service market (SaaS) market continues to experience rapid growth, with surveys suggesting that almost all organizations now use at least one cloud application. According to the 2023 State of SaaSOps Report from BetterCloud, organizations use an average of 130 SaaS applications.

A new study reveals that critical shortcomings in standard data protection strategies are putting organizations at increased risk of downtime and data loss. IDC researchers report that an alarming 93 percent of organizations across North America and Western Europe suffered a data-related business disruption during the past 12 months with nearly 60 percent experiencing unrecoverable data loss.

Safeguarding data against loss, theft or corruption has always been one of the most critical functions of IT organizations. However, the process has become far more complex over the past several years. With the continued transition to cloud, mobile and remote working, the days of simply establishing a secure perimeter around a single, monolithic data repository are long gone.

Hurricane activity has spiked dramatically in recent weeks. As the National Hurricane Center monitored the simultaneous formation of a half-dozen named storms and five other areas of concern in mid-September, NHC scientist Eric Blake tweeted, “They are forming like roaches out there!”

An active hurricane season is always a reminder of the importance of disaster recovery planning.

Even the smallest of small-to-midsize businesses (SMBs) have finally let go of their old-fashioned paper filing systems, and now store most of their data electronically. Many have become more advanced, using sophisticated applications and leveraging data in new ways to support business strategy.

Business is booming. Customers are happy. Employees are happy. Everything is humming like a well-oiled machine. You have an unblemished reputation. What could possibly go wrong?

Well, everything.

All it takes is one disaster – one fire, one hurricane, one flood, one hack, or one disgruntled employee with an axe to grind – to send the entire operation into a tailspin.

Although the concept of the cloud in terms of multiple users sharing computer resources has been around since the 1960s, the modern version of the cloud didn’t start to take shape until the late 1990s. Then came Salesforce, Amazon, Google and others with now ubiquitous cloud offerings that can be accessed from any device.

Data backup is one of the most critical IT functions, but historically it has been difficult to get right. Studies regularly find that about one-third of all companies never back up their business data, while roughly the same number say they conduct intermittent backups but never test their backups to ensure they’re working properly.

The “always on” nature of business — with an increasingly mobile workforce, the Internet of Things and the ability to engage customers around the clock — demands 100 percent uptime. If IT systems aren’t performing optimally, productivity and customer service suffer.

As we head into the 2018 hurricane season, it’s time once again to evaluate your organization’s preparedness. Business continuity (BC) and disaster recovery (DR) planning involves more than just technology — your primary objectives are to ensure the safety of your people and your facilities.