UK SMEs should prioritise creating disaster recovery plans to ensure business continuity

Cybercrime is a significant issue for businesses of all sizes in the UK. Although we usually hear more about cybersecurity incidents impacting large businesses, smaller businesses are also a target.

Recent reports have revealed that a staggering 81% of all UK businesses who have fallen prey to cyberattacks belong to the small to medium-sized category, but only 19% have implemented a cyber incident response plan (IRP) as recommended by the National Cyber Security Centre. This alarming statistic underlines the urgent need for SMEs to take proactive measures to secure their digital assets against cyber threats.

Dave Adamson, CTO at Espria, stresses the need for UK SMEs to devise and implement a disaster recovery plan for cloud data.

“It is crucial for businesses to have a clear, well-defined plan of action to respond quickly and effectively to cyber-attacks. Doing so can significantly reduce the impact of such attacks and ensure that business operations are not disrupted.

“When an organisation encounters a complete shutdown, it not only brings the entire workflow to an abrupt halt but also results in losing access to critical systems and essential data.

“This in turn, can cause a significant delay in responding to customers and suppliers, negatively impacting the organisation’s revenue, productivity, and reputation. It is vital to acknowledge that these consequences can be severe and lead to financial and operational setbacks. Therefore, planning for, and then taking immediate and effective action is imperative in such situations.”

Adamson stresses the significance of establishing and executing IT disaster recovery plans to guarantee business resilience and continuity.

“It is extremely important to take measures to mitigate any downtime or data loss in business operations. SMEs should take proactive steps to establish and maintain IT disaster recovery plans to safeguard their operations. Regular testing and maintenance of the disaster recovery plan is essential to ensure it is up-to-date and sufficient.

“Cloud-based disaster recovery offers many advantages to organisations. One of the most significant benefits is its flexibility and scalability, which allows SMEs to tailor their service selection according to their specific needs through cloud migration and back-up services. SMEs can ensure their data is protected and recoverable in the case of an attack, while also being able to adapt to changing business requirements over time.”

According to Adamson, cloud-based solutions have a significant advantage over traditional recovery methods in terms of the financial aspect of disaster recovery. “Traditional methods require substantial investments in physical infrastructure, such as servers, storage devices and secure offsite locations for storing data. The cost of maintenance and periodic replacement of such resources is often a significant financial burden.”

Adamson concluded, “UK SMEs must prioritise cloud-based disaster recovery to ensure resilience. Without a plan, businesses risk losing their competitive edge and weakening their position within their industry. Given the constant threat of cyber and ransomware attacks, businesses must have a robust disaster recovery plan in place to mitigate potential disruption to their operations. By leveraging cloud-based disaster recovery, in the event of a data bbreach operations can be quickly restored, minimising downtime, enhancing customer trust, and safeguarding reputation.”