The ability to keep a system running after a disaster can determine the fate of many businesses. According to FEMA, as many as 60% of small businesses never recover after a disaster and are forced to close. This highlights why so many small and medium businesses (SMBs) rely on managed service providers (MSPs) for business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR) services to recover from a disaster and stay in business. However, MSPs can only protect their customer’s business if their BCDR solutions have reliable backups and restore outcomes.
When a system goes down, getting that system back up and running quickly is every MSP’s goal. All too often however, a backup will fail, causing the MSP and their customer to lose confidence in the process. When disasters like power outages, flooding, or security breaches inevitably occur, MSPs need to know that their backups are in good standing so they can be the hero for their customers. In other words, MSPs need to be reliable, and they can’t promise that if the solutions they have implemented are lacking. This is why it’s so important to have BCDR solutions that verifies the backups are in good standing and will result in a successful recovery with all customer data.
Recovery is only half the battle for SMBs. Downtime is extremely expensive and MSPs need to go beyond simply recovering data and deliver business continuity solutions to keep their customers online in the face of otherwise devastating issues such as ransomware, malware, natural disasters, network downtime, and costly human errors.
When vetting solutions, it’s important for MSPs to know what to look for in a reliable BCDR solution. Here are a few features to keep in mind:
- Backup Verification: This feature will scan the backups when they are taken to ensure they include all data, are free from ransomware, and will result in successful restores. Giving MSPs and their customers confidence they can stay in business when disaster strikes.
- Reliable Restoration: When customers are panicked, MSPs want to be able to restore systems no matter what form of disaster has occurred. Because each disaster is different, MSPs need BCDR tools that offer multiple restore options - from single file recoveries to full system restores.
- Instant Virtualization: When a system goes down, this feature will allow MSPs to continue operating the downed machine locally or from the cloud.
The features mentioned above are crucial for MSPs to help their customers stay up and stay in business. A reliable business continuity solution will empower MSPs to offer their clients reliable service and be heroes in their customer’s time of need. When backup and restore options are trustworthy, MSPs save time which they can use to deliver more value to their customers. If you’re interested in learning more about what to look for in a reliable business continuity solution, check out the whitepaper, Raising the Bar for Reliability, today.
Christian Kane is product marketing manager, Datto Inc. Read more Datto blogs here.
