MENA Businesses Warned Against Lack of Data Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Plans

Rising Tide of Threats Calls For Early Action and Robust Reference Architectures

Dubai, United Arab Emirates: MENA businesses without robust data disaster recovery and business continuity plans are more prone to reputation hits from downtime than ever before, according to one of the region’s leading data storage and protection experts.

A recent survey by B2B International and Kaspersky Lab found that only 40 per cent of users in the UAE were able to retrieve the data they lost in a malware attack, with 60 per cent stating they lost some of their valuable information forever.

Across the world, threat levels are reaching fever pitch. The Cisco 2014 Annual Security Report notes that total global threat alerts increased 14 percent year-on-year from 2012 to 2013.

The scale and complexity of data threating security threats is partly fuelled by the irrepressible rise of the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) trend.  This is particularly pronounced in the Middle East and Africa, which will post the world’s-fastest mobile data traffic growth rate from 2013-2018, increasing 14-fold by 2018, according to The Cisco® Visual Networking Index Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast.

“The more you let your data build up the more expensive it will become,” said Savitha Bhaskar, General Manager, Condo Protego.

“Now is the time to act to ensure every aspect of operations are safeguarded against attacks and, in the worst case scenarios, that data can be recovered and business can continue as usual. Businesses need to establish a reference architecture early on so they can plan and scale in the most efficient manner possible. The first step is always to understand what you are dealing with, what are you trying to protect against, and how your business will cope in the event of a disaster. This is not a process a business can tackle alone. A top notch system integration team is essential.”

“Those serious about safeguarding their data in an optimal manner need to highlight risk-levels and assign appropriate values and actions. Ideally this will entail, conducting a cost and risk analysis. You need to understand the financial impact of losing data at every juncture,” added Bhaskar.

“Optimal disaster recovery and business continuity plans can only ever come as the result of a deep understanding of business objectives and rigorous consultation that spans the entire solution cycle --from design and implementation to comprehensive post-sales support.”

Posted on www.godubai.com