Iomart : Disaster Recovery webinar follow up

We hosted a webinar on the 16th of February 2022. If you missed it, you can watch it at the bottom of this page.

Why did we host a Full Recovery webinar?

We've got lots of content on our website about how this solution works. There are some pretty nifty case studies and testimonials too.

But it's not all about promoting the managed solutions we offer. We also want to be a source of useful information you can take back to your business (regardless of whether you have a solution with us or not).

So, we started interviewing different businesses about data management and disaster recovery. And we found that:

• there's conflicting information about how to manage a disaster
• people feel pretty anxious about the topic.

Some of the initial insight we gathered

On the lower end of the spectrum, we were told 'it's not a fun thing' (fair enough). And at the catastrophic end, we've had hypothetical tales of planes and meteorites crashing into data centres, flames and smoke billowing from the precious wreckage. One person simply described it as 'Russian roulette'.

What we did with all that insight

We laid all the interview transcripts out in front of us. And started to think about how we could offer some educational content to help solve some of these problems.

One thing became clear. A lot of the anxiety came from the unknown. What happens if disaster does strike? Who does what? How do we get back up and running quickly? How do we lessen the impact for our end customers?

Then it hit us (not like a meteorite, more like the subtle ping of a lightbulb) - Disaster Recovery planning is the ticket to peace of mind. And we like giving you peace of mind.

The answer? Webinar time with our consultants

Included as part of our Full Recovery solution, our expert consultancy team use specific questions to build a tailored Disaster Recovery Plan. So, if disaster strikes, you know exactly what steps to take, to get you back up and running in no time.

Disaster Recovery planning is about managing fear of the unknown. It's the safety net under the tightrope. The crash helmet you wear when you're out for a cycle. You hope to never have to use it. But you feel comfort knowing it's there.

So, we wanted to share those key consultancy questions with you (to help you on your way to creating your own disaster recovery plan). And that's exactly what our Solutions Architects did at the webinar.

Interesting things we learned on the day

We ran a few anonymous polls. And found that 48% of attendees had suffered a disaster or breach. This isn't all that surprising. We know that global cyber intrusion jumped by 125% in the first half of 2021. And that 86% of organisations expected to suffer a successful cyber-attack in 2020.

The data protection landscape has changed. Hackers are becoming more sophisticated while the natural environment grows tumultuous. There's a growing awareness that disaster is likely to touch your business at some point (no matter how good your security posture is). Not to mention that cyber insurance premiums have increased by as much as 100% with insurers now looking for proof of an existing clean environment and good cyber hygiene. It's a lot to manage.

When asked 'How confident would you feel if you were faced with a disaster or breach tomorrow?':

Now we know you can't always protect yourself when it comes to a breach or disaster. But a good recovery plan means you'll feel really confident about what to do, and how to do it, if disaster does strike. There was a real mix of responses for this question. But the message was clear. Only 3% would feel 'very confident' if they were faced with a disaster or breach tomorrow. We're on a mission to change that.

When it came to 'How regularly do you test your disaster recovery plan?':

These results are interesting, and confirmed what we already suspected. Lots of businesses don't test their disaster recovery plans (or they don't test them enough). We recommend at least twice and year. And you should test individual applications to make sure you can bring them back.

Your Disaster recovery plan is a living document. So, updating it whenever you make a change to your infrastructure is good practise too. Along with regularly testing end-to-end disaster recovery scenarios (so you're ready to go no matter what happens).

What we'll do with the webinar insight

As always, we'll use all this insight to create more useful content on a range of topics. From helping you feel confident in the face of disaster, to understanding the best cloud set up for your business needs. Our aim is to keep you protected, connected and infinitely scalable.

Keep an eye out for more webinars

We were really pleased with the turn out, along with your insightful questions and input. So, we're keen to run more of these in the coming months. Keep an eye out for more iomart webinars. We'll see you there. Come rain, shine, or meteorites.