When disaster strikes, your business can face downtime. And downtime costs money. For this, Microsoft offers DRaaS (Disaster Recovery as a Service) to provide for back up response when tragedy strikes. But beyond individual instances of tragedy lie a whole slew of potential pitfalls that may cause downtime. You see, acting as an umbrella to disaster recovery is business continuity. Often used interchangeably, disaster recovery and business continuity are not identical and serve separate purposes. Disaster Recovery refers to the ability to restore data and applications quickly should your datacenter be damaged or destroyed. Business continuity indicates a strategy to avoid as much downtime as possible; to plan for the “what ifs” and to determine that—no matter the scenarios, you can keep your lights on and continue with business as usual. Not only are the protection of data and the ability to serve customers seamlessly important, but the financial burden of downtime can be staggering. The Rand Group performed a 2017 survey of U.S. -based companies and brought insight into the estimates of downtime costs: 98% of organizations say a single hour of downtime costs over $100,000 81% of respondents indicated that 60 minutes of downtime costs their business over $300,000 33% of those enterprises reported that one hour of downtime costs their firms $1-5 million Source: Information Technology Intelligence Consulting Research Businesses also have three major threats to consider when determining their adoption of a business continuity plan (BCP). Cyber security – data breaches and malware are becoming more common. These issues can cause business interruption and data compromise, which affects your service level and could even have regulatory consequences. Proper security planning, as part of your BCP. Physical Security – This refers to loss of facility or loss of people. If an employee passes away, or your building is damaged, how will you continue business as normal and reduce your downtime costs? While not everything is avoidable, it is possible to plan for contingency set-ups in order to keep business performing at an acceptable rate. Service Issues – If your organization is large, and has a supply chain that grows with it, that chain has more points at which it can break. A single disruption of service or production can cause hassles and dollars. New Signature has the expertise to guide you in predicting possible threats to your data and your business continuity and ca guide you in formulating a solid business continuity plan. We can help you choose the right datacenters and Azure storage options to decrease your downtime, maintain your security updates, and determine how to avoid as many business disruptions as possible. Our Cloud Readiness Assessment service offering assesses your current state and determines how we might adjust your environment by either migrating to the cloud or improving your current cloud set-up. Planning is the first step to a business that performs at an optimum rate and is solidified with a proper contingency and business continuity plan. Contact an expert today to discuss your unique situation. “: