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A disaster recovery (DR) solution resembles the likes of any insurance; the cost may seem unnecessary, but you heave a sigh of relief when an accident occurs. Many organisations that have faired well in evading significant data loss still struggle to justify this investment. After all, why allocate an expense that you might never use? Do business owners realise the value of disaster recovery vs downtime?

With progressively advanced infrastructures and rampant data growth, the likelihood of data loss sprouts along not far behind. Thus, it’s essential to comprehend the real cost of implementing a disaster recovery solution compared to the price of unprecedented downtime. 

First, let’s go over the factors involved in the cost of a DR plan. 

What are DR Plans for? 

What disasters are we referring to? It’s any scenario in which you lose access to critical data, rendering your business in disarray and unable to perform fundamental operations. From general software failures, power outages, floods to fires or even cybersecurity threats – DR plans serve as a solution to salvage your business from falling flat. 

By having a standby secondary production site that is only powered up when necessary, inclusive of latest version of backup data, this investment allows you to minimise the brunt of downtime and gets your business up and running as soon as possible. In hindsight, DR plans seem like a small price to pay for assured business continuity.

How Much Does Disaster Recovery Plan Cost?

The cost varies according to several factors, such as the amount of data backed up, the frequency of backups, the speed at which you’re back up and running and the Disaster Recovery provider that you choose. Regardless, you shouldn’t pick the cheapest one with a plan that covers only the basics. Seek experts who can guide you in the right direction for your company. 

Now, what happens in the event of a disaster? 

You might be thinking: how much return on investment (ROI) can I gain from investing in DR? It can be difficult to place an accurate value on digital assets and assess risk, but unforeseen events may cost your business more than just financially. 

Here’s a scenario to help you understand:

There’s pipe damage causing flood in your data centre. The primary servers and backup servers are beyond repair; all your data storage media is gone. There is a backup of data at an off-site location. However, the off-site location is not located in Malaysia. To restore data will take days to weeks or even months to complete. Secondly, where should the data be restored? There are no standby servers you can utilise.

In order to purchase new servers to replace the faulty ones, delivery of hardware will take around two weeks, excluding the turnaround time for the finance department to follow process and procedures to churn out the purchase orders.  While all these take place, employees are unable to access the systems, causing the business to be at a halt and severe monetary loss.

Let’s say you achieve all the above within 20 days; you would’ve been down approximately 480 hours. If your business generates RM1,000 of revenue per hour, that’s RM480,000 down the drain. Not to mention the hardware replacement costs which don’t come up a dime a dozen.

Therefore, when assessing your business’s acceptable costs and losses in case of disasters, consider these two parameters: 

• Recovery Time Objective (RTO)—This is the maximum amount of time your organisation has after an occurrence before undesirable consequences set in due to a break in business continuity. Your main aim here is to calculate how quickly your firm can recover so that you can determine all preparations and the budget they entails. For modern businesses, going offline for even a day is frowned upon. 
• Recovery Point Objective (RPO)—This metric allows you to know the point in time your recovery plan can proceed seamlessly. For example, if the time between backups is two hours and the most recent backup was 8 pm, all the data created after would’ve been lost. 

Read More: How to Mitigate Disaster Recovery Risk with DR-as-a-Service (DRaaS)

What happens when there’s no DR plan?

If you don’t have a solid Disaster Recovery plan, you can still restore data manually, but that’s not a feasible or sustainable method for the long-term. It would be incredibly time-consuming and costly, resulting in:

1. Loss of business 
2. Decreased team morale
3. Impact on reputation
4. Greater monetary loss in the long run

Aside from the lost time and money, it’s not a good look for your business overall. You wouldn’t purchase an expensive laptop and not get insurance for it, even if you’re the careful type. Similarly, Disaster Recovery acts as a safety net to soften the blow and rectify the situation headed south.

When push comes to shove, the price of downtime is a hefty one to burden. Hence, the value of disaster recovery vs downtime of business is now apparent to organisations.

Although maintaining a Disaster Recovery plan sounds like a tedious task that calls for significant resources, you’ll be glad to have a safeguard breaking your fall when it comes time. Aegis Cloud Disaster Recovery (CDR) is a cloud backup or restore service that caters for on-premise or cloud and equipped with complimentary unlimited disaster recovery resources. Rest assured that when the going gets tough, Aegis CDR gets you going.

Find out more about the beneficial features of Aegis CDR.

As human beings, we are built on flaws. We perpetuate human errors; accidentally deleting files, misplacing our laptops and phones and even forgetting to backup data. If only Ctrl+Z could be applied in real life to prevent the threat of human error.

Once you have lost sensitive information from your business, best believe it’ll take a lot of money to recover rather than a trusty undo button. Unlike in movies, the main culprit of business data loss isn’t complex security breaches or data corruption — it’s human error. 

Human error is the primary cause of business data loss; the grave mistakes employees make in their course of work. In this post, we will be exploring the top contenders of human error resulting in data loss, and how you can prevent your business from these catastrophes. 

Accidental Deletion

We use our laptops and mobile devices for important work in our daily business lives. As straightforward as it is to save a file, we can also delete it with a simple, accidental click. It is also possible to overwrite critical business files. Aside from this, email and system file deletions are typical user errors that cause data loss as well. Because of our human flaws, file deletion is inevitable. 

Failing to Backup Data

Circumstances are unpredictable. At some point, we all experience a complete system crash. You can often rescue and restore it, but why take the risk?

Failure to back up your computer is the most prevalent cause of data loss due to human error. Fortunately, we can prevent this by scheduling daily automatic backups for critical data.

Incremental backups are smaller and faster compared to full backups, but you may need multiple backups to restore the system entirely.

Loss of Hardware

When you’re slaving away day and night, you may carry equipment with you on business travels, including your laptop, smartphone, camera or any other devices that store data locally before being reconnected to the server. What happens when you lose these devices? You would be scrambling to recover your data. 

Instead of only saving your work files on your laptop or document folder, you should set up automatic backups and select a cloud-based server. Google Drive is a free and accessible server that enables you to easily share files and data with your team when working remotely. However convenient this service is, it’s not a long-term solution. It’s best to opt for scalable cloud-based servers that can increase your company’s efficiency and are overall more reliable.

Read More: A Guide to Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) Security Practices

Offsite Cloud Backup

While it’s impossible to eradicate or foresee the threat of human error, a secure cloud backup and recovery service can protect your business from detrimental data loss. Aegis Cloud Endpoint Backup (CEB) offers businesses an automatic cloud backup solution to protect data in your endpoint devices, such as desktops, tablets and smartphones, by providing unlimited cloud backup storage to Aegis Cloud. Aegis also provides a platform for cloud disaster recovery services, which can be useful in developing a recovery plan in case of future breaches and losses.

These days, it’s rare to find people storing their data on external hard drives. In case you didn’t know, endpoint backup transmits information from users on ‘endpoints’, which are our technological devices like laptops, phones and tablets to data centres. Cloud-based endpoint backups run on a schedule, either copying and storing data once every 24 hours or continuously.

This method of safekeeping business data is vital to enterprises. The loss of critical data due to security breaches or unforeseen circumstances can be detrimental to the business. Unfortunately, there still seems to be a shroud of misconception surrounding the strategy for endpoint backup.

Now that we’ve virtually gathered here today, let’s bust some of the ongoing myths about endpoint backup!

Myth #1: It’s the users’ responsibility to backup endpoints

This is a destructive myth that several organisations have fallen victim to over the last three decades. Contrary to many beliefs, your user endpoints do contain critical business information. In the event that you lose an endpoint, your data, time and productivity follows suit.

You may also think that users copy their data onto external hard drives. Still, it’s undeniable that you lack control and confirmation to ensure that they are identifying the critical information being transmitted. Aside from that, we often keep external hard drives close to the endpoint, resulting in potential harm to both.

Be smart about judging the value of your data in your endpoint systems, and treat them with the same care that your server systems receive.

Myth #2: Antivirus is enough protection for user data

Many enterprises make the mistake of relying on antivirus solutions. Most of the time, they are so accustomed to their interface that the issues are unrecognised (or anti-recognised).

Antivirus solutions are no match for the threat intelligence of new-age endpoint protection. It may be able to defend some on-premises endpoints attacks, but it lacks the capabilities to protect more remote endpoints or modern network infrastructures. Moreover, malware and hackers are always evolving, and antivirus protection is continuously trying to catch up with them. Hence, antivirus solutions may not be sufficient if the updates are unable to keep up with the latest malware.

Luckily, you can quickly dispel this myth by determining your company’s use case with the expertise of your IT team!

Myth #3: Does endpoint backup work?

Good endpoint backup protections do work effectively. However, they are different from server backups as they aren’t running all the time. They tend to hibernate or run out of power. Thankfully, sturdy endpoint backup solutions seek to withstand and overcome these mishaps, so it’s essential to choose one that resumes backups from the time of failure.

Read More: Top 5 Easily Avoidable Mistakes for Endpoint Backup

Myth #4: Having cloud storage is good enough

Cloud storage is not the same as a Backup. In fact, this approach can only protect data that end users choose to transmit. It is entirely sufficient for file sharing and mobile access but delivers weak protection against data loss. Despite some cloud storage solutions coming with an automatic sync mechanism, sync solutions replicate files from an endpoint to the cloud, so any infection or deletion follows suit.

Myth #5: Cloud backups are not safe

We’ve all had paranoid thoughts about our private data suspended in the cloud, vulnerable to cyberattacks. Do deletions really vanquish something forever? Who else has access to my data? These justified concerns can rest once you select the right backup software and backup vendor—one offering encryption for your data and cloud backup policy based on your terms, such as “remote wipe capabilities” to ensure no data breaches.

Read More: Remote Cloud Backup Solutions for the Workforce in Malaysia

Myth #6: Cloud backup is costly

For the most part, cloud backup solutions are becoming increasingly affordable. It’s worth the additional cost rather than living through a data loss fiasco that can harm your business. All you need to do is search for a reputable cloud backup provider that provides hassle-free backup solution with affordable price!

Myth #7: Restoring data with a backup solution is too convoluted

In a way, individually downloading hundreds and thousands of folders is difficult and tedious. With the right endpoint backup solutions, you can recover large numbers of files with a single click, as well as preview files and download them accordingly. Most endpoint backup strategies provide a separate interface for data restoration.

Read More: Clearing the Myth: Why the Cloud is Not a Backup

In our mighty battle against endpoint backup myths, it’s helpful to arm ourselves with facts and choose a creditable vendor that’s right for us. Aegis Cloud Endpoint Backup (CEB) offers outstanding data protection from vulnerabilities for businesses across all walks. With endpoint backup features that include encryption, global deduplication, global device location tracking and remote data wipe, rest assured that your critical data is safe from malware, theft and human error.

Change can be challenging, especially for those who thrive in routine. However, as technology continues to advance, it is vital to adapt instead of remaining stagnant. As with the question of software subscription vs. perpetual license, software companies are adapting to user needs while increasing their client base. By recognising that change can be useful in the long run, we evolve and better our lives. 

Same goes for the developing software industry, where many companies are increasingly switching from perpetual licensing to cloud-based subscription. The latter allows consumers access to software previously unaffordable and businesses to avert their sights on more efficient development. 

But if software subscription is better than traditional perpetual licensing—why? Let us take a look at the differences between the two and their benefits. Only with a clear understanding can you decide the best solution for your company. 

Software Subscription vs Perpetual Licensing 

The main difference is that with software subscription, users have temporary access to software over a fixed period. On the other hand, users can access a software perpetually over time with the eponymous perpetual license. 

Perpetual Licensing

In the early days of commercially sold software, products were sold for an upfront price. This is because the handling of subscription costs seemed impossible. Simultaneously, computer hardware was expensive and did not need regular upgrades, so it made sense to pay once and get software access forever. 

The downside includes a larger up-front payment, which hints at a long-term commitment in an ever-changing technological world. Considering the incremental data volumes, technological advances and growing online threats, this model simply does not offer the required flexibility. However, many products still use perpetual licensing as they prefer “owning” software instead of “renting” it through subscriptions.

Software Subscription

With software subscription, users are charged monthly or yearly for access to the software. This results in a significantly lower cost than the former model and broadens the software to more users. If a user decides to subscribe for an extended period, the company’s revenue would cost more than that of the perpetual license.

Companies have found the switch to software subscription very appealing in its many benefits. Take Adobe Cloud for example. They made the replacement, and in turn, brought in the recurring revenue they envisioned. Now, the software is more affordable to the public and eliminates the threat of cheaper alternatives. Unlike with perpetual licenses, they no longer had to consistently make considerable improvements to their software to entice customers.

Benefits of Software Subscription

• Lower upfront cost – Large one-time software purchases are a cash flow nightmare. It is a huge capital investment which takes a few years to depreciate. With a subscription model, you can opt for monthly, quarterly or yearly payment cycle. It is an expected expense; therefore, you can plan and budget easily. 
• Flexibility—With subscriptions, you can easily opt to scale up or down on the licenses, depending on business needs. Software subscription model allows you to have more control of your license scalability.  
• Stronger customer relationships—Subscription pricing builds stronger relationships through continuous updates and feedback from your customers. This allows you to respond directly to their needs instead of trying to anticipate them when working on a newer version of the software. Software subscription model helps shift the focus away from customer acquisition and more towards customer retention. 
• More willingness to try your product—These days, consumers are more attracted to subscription-based software. They are becoming less willing to splurge on an upfront payment that perpetual licensing requires. Since software subscription models are affordable, people are more likely to try it if the product catches their attention and curiosity. If your offering is what customers are looking for and they are happy, they may stick around for a long time, which also helps you to maximise your profits. 

Software subscription model is an increasingly popular business model. By subscribing to Aegis Cloud Disaster Recovery, you can reap quality products and services as well as other benefits at a low, very affordable cost. With a highly flexible Cloud Backup and Disaster Recovery architecture, you need not commit to a long-term contract and may pay only for your current needs. 

Benefits of Aegis Cloud Disaster Recovery

• Aegis 1Price-Any-Technologies (1PAT) — A Cloud Backup service that enables you to utilise any backup technologies at a fixed recurring price. With multiple technologies to fulfil your RTO and RPO needs, you can eliminate additional technology investments to cater to different needs. This solution guarantees successful backup and restore across the heterogeneous platform.
• Aegis DR-As-A-Service (DRaaS) – A Disaster Recovery service that is equipped with unlimited DR resources ready to be utilised during DR declaration. Aegis DRaaS helps you to save cost on Disaster Recovery Hardware and Software and guarantees successful DR drills. 
• Aegis Managed Service – A service that undertakes tasks such as operations, maintenance and support of your backup and DR operations. With more than a decade of experience in Cloud Disaster Recovery, Aegis Managed Service aims to ease your burden and to encourage IT department to be more productive and improve efficiency.

Find out more about the Cloud Disaster Recovery services offered by Aegis.

Nowadays, as cloud servers multiply for users and become more popular, deciding between a local and international cloud disaster recovery (DR) provider is no straightforward task. Large global cloud DR providers are now easily accessible, offering more affordable services and credibility in the brand name. Consequently, this may end up driving out smaller local cloud DR providers from the industry.

However, there are many things that local cloud DR providers offer that global providers can’t replicate.

Price

Local cloud DR providers may not be able to match the low prices of global cloud DR providers. However, the attractive prices offered by the latter are often due to cuts in their services. For example, your data will not be automatically encrypted in the cloud by some global cloud DR providers, unless you pay an additional fee for this essential service. Some even charge extra to restore your data, too.

End destination of data

Understandably, some companies require their data to be in storage within their own countries due to compliance issues. With global cloud DR providers, their data centres are located across various countries, which means your data will be replicated and stored in multiple countries as well. Consequently, the gross volume of data stored makes them primary targets of cyberattacks. With local cloud DR providers, at least you know the data centres are located within Malaysia. It also mitigates vulnerability to hackers.

Importance of data sovereignty

With global cloud DR providers, storing your data across multiple countries can complicate things when facing legal disputes. Some sectors, such as government agencies and legal and accounting firms, require data to be within Malaysia. Choosing a local cloud provider can avoid such data sovereignty implications, as they are bound by Malaysia’s laws and regulations.

Read More: Challenges and Opportunities in Cloud Data Sovereignty

Support is available locally

Having a local cloud DR provider will ensure that support is readily available when needed. In case the need for emergency response arises, you do not have to wait longer due to the different time zones of global vendors. If you are facing difficulties in troubleshooting, for example, you can get the required assistance in a timely manner from local cloud DR provider.

Excellent customer service

Due to their smaller customer base, local cloud DR providers can offer a higher quality of customer service. Global providers, on the other hand, usually have such a large number of customers that they can’t match the same level of attention. During emergencies, local cloud DR providers will be able to be on-site at the shortest time to assist. Since their data centres are located within Malaysia, they can reach your backup data faster, and restoration will be quicker, compared to restoring your backup data from the cloud.

Read More: Cloud Backup vs Local Backup: Pros and Cons for Malaysian Businesses

Cheaper and faster data transport 

As opposed to global cloud DR providers, some local cloud DR providers grant customers with free unlimited backup and DR bandwidth.

Customisable service offerings

Services offered by global cloud DR providers are generally one-size-fits-all that aim to cover everyone with a more generic service. This might not be right for everyone. Businesses with more precise needs can explore customisation with local cloud DR providers that adeptly tailor to their specific needs.

Aegis Cloud Disaster Recovery provides disaster recovery services that are entirely certified in its processes to ensure success. Find out more information on the Cloud Disaster Recovery services that Aegis has to offer. 

Business continuity and disaster recovery are both strategies to safeguard businesses in the unfortunate events of natural disasters, cyberattacks or any interruption in critical systems. 

Since they often appear hand-in-hand, many people may think that they are interchangeable. However, they are two specific plans that work together to ensure that businesses bounce back from catastrophic situations. To protect a company’s data and avoid prolonged downtime during disasters, one must understand the differences between business continuity and disaster recovery, and the significant parts they play. 

Business Continuity Plan (BCP)

Business continuity is a written set of actions taken by companies in times of crisis to ensure that business operations can continue. 

According to the International Standards of Organisation (ISO), this concept was established when the government recognised the effects of disaster strikes on society and the economy. Businesses soon began to realise the need for risk management strategies to alleviate these effects. 

Most of the time, BCP starts with a business impact analysis (BIA) to determine the legal and contractual obligations, which assesses the costs of this plan. Enforcing these strategies are crucial in contributing to a company’s success for maintaining or resuming regular business. 

Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP)

Disaster recovery plans focus on helping a business transition back to business “as usual” and aims to minimise downtime. This involves restoring critical support systems like hardware and IT assets, data and the company’s full services.

Many companies often suffer IT disasters in the face of crisis. Security breaches can cause bankruptcy as loss of data largely resembles the impacts of a burglary.

How are they different?

They may seem similar, but the key difference comes when the two plans take motion. Business continuity allows operations to remain functional during disastrous circumstances. In contrast, disaster recovery focuses on your response to the event immediately after it has passed and how your business will return to normal.

Take the COVID-19 pandemic, for example. When the epidemic hit, the continuity plan of many businesses was to let employees work remotely. However, this solution is merely an emergency response and will not work long-term. The disaster recovery plan, then, should focus on implementing safety measures so that staff can come back to the office. In this instance, these measures may include reviewing work policies, ways to apply social distancing, usage of masks, handwashing and, improving or enabling remote technology tools in the event of similar pandemic occurrences.

What to include in a business continuity plan?

It’s essential to assess any foreseeable problems that may occur during hard times before they happen so that you’re able to soften the blow and get your business up and running as soon as possible. 

Firstly, you need to identify the risks and understand your IT infrastructure:

• What types of dangers will your business face? 
• Is your business vulnerable to natural disasters? If so, will they affect your vital systems and software? 
• Are your systems and networks prone to cyberattacks? 
• Does your company have backup systems or recovery services?

These are a few things to consider when drawing up a business continuity plan. Then, review your list of risks with professionals and address each one to prevent significant issues. Make sure to keep in touch with those involved in your BCP and inform all your employees, suppliers and vendors on the steps to take in case catastrophe hits. 

With these steps firmly in place, business operations may be able to continue smoothly. This may include advanced repair services, data recovery and communications restoration. You should also have contingency plans such as a backup location in case of fire or water damages, backup computer servers in the events of a power surge, and staff substitution in case employees are affected. 

What to include in a disaster recovery plan?

Once the BCP is in place, the disaster recovery plan should be underway in assisting the business back to its full strength. Certain things to identify are:

• What is the timeline for recovery? How long is the business going to operate under the BCP?
• Who are the recovery team to enact the different tasks, and what are their responsibilities? 
• How will business data be recovered? Should the equipment or software be replaced?

You should test your disaster recovery plan every few months to ensure that the program is up-to-date. If not, there’s always room for improvement. You can test the DRP by holding mock events that mimic power outages, data loss or other disasters that are most likely to occur in your region.

Read More: How to Mitigate Disaster Recovery Risk with DR-as-a-Service (DRaaS)

Conclusion

The difference between business continuity plans and disaster recovery plans is specific but often overlap to prevent business failings in times of crisis. Prioritising both objectives in preparation for these unforeseen circumstances will keep your business protected and running. 

Here at Aegis, there are a group of experts to help you create, review or update your disaster recovery plan. Find out more information on the Cloud Disaster Recovery services that Aegis has to offer. 

At this moment in time, many areas in the world are experiencing natural disasters. With hurricane season at its peak as well as tornados, snow, and wildfires wreaking havoc, these inevitable circumstances cause distress to many, especially families and small businesses. Hence, a disaster recovery plan is crucial.

While Malaysia is spared from such disasters, it does occasionally face floods, landslides, forest fires and severe haze. In the past years, Malaysia has experienced several extreme weather and climatic events, ranging from thunderstorms to monsoonal floods. To add on to the disaster hazards, Malaysia experienced riots and was affected by the global pandemic as of late. The total economic loss and the financial burden on businesses were heavy. With that said, there is no better time than now to update and upgrade your disaster recovery plan.

While natural disasters seem to be the most significant concern now, not all emergencies come in the form of a storm, flood or landslides. Failed air-conditioning, broken water pipes, chemical leaks, and security breaches can cause just as much destruction to businesses. It is essential to acknowledge the day-to-day threats that could cause business outages. That is why every business should be prepared with a disaster recovery plan and continuously bullet-proof the plan.

Today, we are here to guide you on how to bullet-proof your disaster recovery plan. Before we get to that, have a short read on what a disaster recovery plan is:

What is a Disaster Recovery Plan?

A disaster recovery plan is a type of service which protects your business from any unplanned disasters; be it cybercrimes, human errors and even natural disasters. In simpler words, it is considered as insurance for all your data and servers. If your business happens to come across any unforeseen risks, the disaster recovery plan will be able to recover it. This way, you won’t lose any of your data, and there won’t be any loss to your business.

Here in Aegis, we specialise in providing Cloud Disaster Recovery services. With over a decade of DR experience and multiple awards achieved over the years; we can guarantee that our services are trustworthy and of top-notch quality.

Now, the real question remains unanswered – how do you bullet-proof your disaster discovery plan? Well, we’ll answer that question for you. Read on to find out how.

Read More: Understanding the Role of Cyber Insurance in Cloud Security

Ways to Bullet-Proof Your Disaster Recovery Plan

1. Ensure Continuous DR Testing

This is one of the most critical ways to bullet-proof your disaster recovery (DR) plan. Many organisations and companies often forget to test out their DR plans. Here’s what you should know; there have to be various changes since the last time your plan got tested. The infrastructure, systems and even the staffs have changed since then. Therefore, we suggest scheduling a DR drill to get your DR plan tested. By performing DR drills, you will be more prepared and know your respective roles when any disaster occurs.

Here in Aegis, we provide unlimited DR drills for our customers. All DR drills will be assisted by dedicated DR drill professionals. With the help of the professionals, customers do not have to go through any hassle since the DR drills will surely be a success. Not only does it save time, but it saves cost as well.

2. Ensure an Up-To-Date RTO and RPO Requirements

Customers, employees and business partners nowadays would often expect 24/7 availability. Hence, to stay prepared for any disaster recovery events; you have to ensure that the RTO (Recovery Time Objective) and RPO (Recovery Point Objective) requirements are up to date and are aligned with the latest business direction.

As a matter of fact, Aegis provides 1Price-Any-Technologies (1PAT) service to meet different RTO and RPO requirements. Aegis 1PAT includes a mix of backup technologies for different RTO & RPO needs. Aegis 1PAT also guarantees workability of backup software towards any systems.

3. Keep Check of Your Disaster Recovery Infrastructure

It is vital for your DR plan to have an offsite backup and DR location. An offsite disaster recovery location is important, especially in situations where the workers are not able to access to the primary site. The DR site must be equipped with the exact replica of the primary site’s systems and applications. In case anything happens to the primary site, your workers will still have access to data and systems at the remote DR site, and business may resume. Performing DR drills will also check on the readiness and preparedness of the DR infrastructure.

Here at Aegis, we offer not one, but two DR sites for our customers. Note that the secondary site is complimentary. The first Disaster Recovery Centre (DRC1) is situated in Cyberjaya; whereas the second Disaster Recovery Centre (DRC2) is in Kuala Lumpur. These dual DR sites are to ensure DR infrastructure redundancy. 

4. Updating the IT DR Plan

Many businesses find it beneficial to schedule disaster recovery plan reviews once a year. No matter how often you choose to review your disaster recovery plan, make sure you do it. Failing to update your disaster recovery plan is almost as bad as not having one. Periodically reviewing your disaster recovery plan is a crucial step in ensuring it continues to accurately portray your environment and respond to the risks and remediation necessary for business continuity.

Aegis’ disaster recovery experts are here to help you create, review, update, validate, and manage your disaster recovery strategy. With 100% fully managed data backup and disaster recovery, Aegis enables you to secure your plan and your business.

Read More: How to Mitigate Disaster Recovery Risk with DR-as-a-Service (DRaaS)

Conclusion

Considering the risks of disasters that Malaysia has to weather, make sure your organisation or company takes the right steps in practising and bullet-proofing the disaster recovery plan. We hope these steps will be helpful for all of you and keep your business safe.

Lay your mind to rest with Aegis Cloud Disaster Recovery which caters for on-premise and cloud servers. Stay protected and reap the benefits of unlimited disaster resources. Find out more about the types of Cloud Disaster Recovery services Aegis has to offer.

In the business world, your data is crucial. Therefore, it’s vital that you backup all your data and be able to restore it in the case of accidents or disasters. However, bear in mind that it’s also vital that you choose the right backup software for the process mentioned earlier so it’s best to have a helpful checklist.

When choosing the right backup software, you’ll need to consider a few points, which are:

• Whether the software is capable of handling heterogeneous platform;
• If the implementation process is complicated;
• Whether your backed-up data can be successfully restored according to your backup strategy;
• Whether you’ll get the right help during emergency situations.

Hence, you will need to really put the points mentioned above into consideration when selecting the right backup software. You may also consider outsourcing this task to a backup service provider who can help you anytime, even during an event of a crisis. To assist you in making the best decision, read our checklist for backup software.

Making the Right Choice

Today’s article is all about helping you choose the right backup service provider and backup software which meets your backup needs. Read on to know what the key points are in choosing one:

Understand your backup service provider well

• Ensure that your backup service provider has a good reputation, with years of proven success in providing backup solution to customers.
  • Aegis is known to be Malaysia’s leading cloud backup and disaster recovery service provider and has been in business since 2010.
• Ensure that your backup service provider has a wide range of clientele.
  • With over a decade of cloud backup and disaster recovery experience, Aegis has garnered more than 200 over cloud backup & DR customers nationwide.
• Ensure that your backup service provider complies with recognised industry standards and adherence to industry best practices.
  • Aegis has obtained the Disaster Recovery Certified Expert (DRCE) certification in 2012. Aegis is also ISO 27001 Information Security Management Systems (ISMS) certified since 2019.

Understand the backup service provider’s technology and offerings

Before deciding on any backup software to use for your company; you should:

• Be aware of the kind of technology that your backup service provider uses.
  • Aegis includes all the technologies used on our official website such as Veeam, Asigra, Carbonite, Commvault, ShadowProtect and will continue to explore other available backup software in the market.
• Choose backup software that works with your applications, operating systems and fulfilling your Recovery Point Objective (RPO) and Recovery Time Objective (RTO).
  • Aegis has the flexibility and scalability you need. Aegis has the best mix of backup technologies for different RPO and RTO requirements.  By engaging Aegis’ services, you are not required to purchase or invest in multiple backup technologies to cater to different needs.
• Select backup software that is capable of adapting to a heterogeneous environment.
  • Aegis can accommodate your business needs by guaranteeing workability of backup software towards any systems, applications and databases.
  • Aegis provides the ability to use any latest technology at any time with no investment impact.
• Consider backup software that allows integration with endpoint devices such as smartphones, laptops and desktops that includes administration and monitoring tools.
  • Aegis streamlines and simplifies the backup process, which also includes cloud endpoint backup.
• Decide on backup software that allows encryption of your backup data.
  • Aegis’ backup software serves data protection for its users. All data will be securely encrypted with AES-256 encryption before backing up to the cloud.

Read More: Aegis Joins MDEC’s & NACSA’s Cyber100 Cohort 3 Programme

Understand the backup service provider’s implementation, support and managed services

• Ensure that the backup software is easy to set up and manage.
  • Aegis provides fully managed backup and disaster recovery services. Aegis undertakes tasks such as operations, maintenance and support of backup and disaster recovery operations. With more than 10 years of experience, Aegis guarantees smooth implementation, successful restore rates and proactive monitoring.

• Many prefer a backup service provider that provides support 24/7
  • Aegis provides unlimited onsite, phone and email support either from 8 to 5 or 24/7
  • Aegis’ disaster recovery call centre is available 24/7

Well, that concludes the checklist for backup software for today. The points, as mentioned earlier, are what you should always keep in mind when choosing a backup service provider and backup software. Remember, it’s not just about backing up and restoring your data, there’s so much more to it!

Interested in finding a cloud backup provider who checks all the above boxes and makes your job easier? Aegis provides quality service and support, incentivised reseller programmes, highly secure data centres and more. Feel free to learn more about Aegis’ extensive offerings.

The usage of Cloud in business has now become a vital part of the New Normal. Accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Cloud is one business tool that has become an essential infrastructure. Being smart about the usage of cloud platforms and services can mean a significant deal, creating a difference between gaining a competitive edge and falling behind. However, businesses that do not possess a business continuity plan will face even greater business continuity risks. This includes business failure, tarnished reputation, and lost productivity which would ultimately lead to financial loss. Therefore, it is undeniably crucial for any business to implement a business continuity plan. Hence, the need for a Cloud Disaster Recovery solution.

What is Cloud Disaster Recovery (CDR)?

Put in simple terms, Cloud Disaster Recovery is akin to having insurance for your servers, against malware attack, data loss and any kinds of disaster. Cloud Disaster Recovery is a service that enables the backup and recovery of a cloud-based platform on remote servers. It stores and backs up selected files and data on a remote, third-party server so that the data can be recovered in cases where the files were to be lost or damaged.

Though most companies may have an off-site disaster recovery plan, a Cloud-based Disaster Recovery plan provides a more economical and efficient provider-managed platform. One of the most prominent Cloud Disaster Recovery Service Provider is Aegis.

Read More: Understanding the Role of Cyber Insurance in Cloud Security

Why Aegis Cloud Disaster Recovery (CDR)?

Although there are other cloud disaster recovery services available in the market, Aegis CDR is the most preferred as it combines cloud backup/restore service that caters for on-premise or cloud bundled with complimentary unlimited DR resources.

With Aegis CDR, you never have to worry about having no “Plan B” in the case where your business were to face with disaster. Aegis CDR equips you with Disaster Recovery Virtual Machines located remotely at Aegis CDR’s data centre, which consists of snapshots of your production servers. Therefore, if a disaster were to strike, you can activate DR Virtual Machines in minutes, allowing the business to resume its operations without any loss. As an added protective measure, Aegis CDR even provides dual Disaster Recovery sites to ensure DR infrastructure redundancy—the primary Disaster Recovery Centre (DRC1) being in Cyberjaya, while the secondary Disaster Recovery Centre (DRC2) being in Kuala Lumpur. With that said, that’s not all that makes Aegis CDR outstanding. Mentioned below are 3 key differentiators of Aegis’ CDR:

1. Aegis 1Price-Any-Technologies (1PAT): A cloud backup service that licenses customers to utilise any backup technologies at a fixed price.
2. Aegis Disaster Recovery As-A-Service (DRaaS): A disaster recovery service that is equipped with unlimited DR resources ready to be utilised by customers during DR declaration.
3. Aegis Managed Service: A service that undertakes tasks such as operations, maintenance and support of customers’ backup and DR operations.

What can Aegis Cloud Disaster Recovery Do for You?

Now that you have an idea of the key differentiators of Aegis CDR, you may be wondering what exactly it can do for you. Below are the benefits of Aegis CDR’s key differentiators:

1.   Aegis 1PAT

A cloud system that licenses clients to utilise any backup technologies at a fixed priced. The features and benefits of this cloud backup service are as follows: 

• Aegis 1PAT provides the best mix of technologies that caters to different RTO and RPO requirements, which saves you from the need to purchase multiple different Backup Software. 
• Aegis 1PAT guarantees the workability of your backup needs, 1PAT, which eliminates the need for you to commit to a Backup Software. 
• Aegis 1PAT offers you only the latest technology without any limitations on only having a few options of Backup Software as Aegis 1PAT continuously explores for better technology. 

2.   Aegis DR as-a-Service (DRaaS)

A disaster recovery service with unlimited DR resources ready for the clients to utilise during DR declaration. The features and benefits of this disaster recovery service are as follows: 

• Aegis DRaaS is complete with several unlimited services such as DR VM, DR vCPU, DR vRAM, DR Security, DR Drill, DR Bandwidth and DRIB, which would allow you to save cost on DR Software and Hardware. 
• For Disaster Recovery drills, Aegis’ dedicated DR professionals offer full assistance, allowing you to save time and workforce as the DR drills provided by Aegis are a guaranteed success, which saves you from many hassles. 
• You would also be able to save cost on the rental of DR seats as up to 30 pax of complimentary DR seats are hosted at Empire Tower, which also comes with the convenience of performing DR Drills in an office space equipped with office facilities.  

3.   Aegis Managed Service

A service that undertakes tasks such as operations, maintenance, and support of client’s backup and DR operations. The features and benefits of this service are as follows: 

• Aegis Managed Service provides a fully managed Backup and Disaster Recovery service by outsourcing the Backup and Disaster Recovery operations tasks, which allows IT personnel to be more productive and efficient. 
• Having more than ten years of experience in Cloud DR, Aegis Managed Service undertakes the operational backup and DR tasks that are infrequently performed by IT personnel while guaranteeing successful high data restore rates, which would ease your burden. 

Features of Aegis Cloud Disaster Recovery

In addition to that, Aegis Cloud Disaster Recovery also comes with unique features.

• ISO 27001 Information Security Management System (ISMS) certification: Aegis CDR is the first cloud disaster recovery service provider in Malaysia to be certified. Aegis CDR protects the confidentiality, integrity and availability of backup data.
• Disaster Recovery Certified Expert (DRCE) certification: Aegis CDR has obtained the highest level of certification in disaster recovery since 2012, with more than a decade of experience in Cloud Disaster Recovery.
• Dual Disaster Recovery Site: Aegis CDR has two Disaster Recovery sites, where the secondary site is complimentary.
• Aegis CDR Portal: A portal that consolidates all cloud backup software & storage in a centralised control centre which can be viewed and monitored at anytime, anywhere.
• Unlimited DR Drills in a year: Unlimited drills are provided with the assistance of the dedicated Aegis DR drill team, and after the completion of the drill, the updated drill documentation will be provided for you too.
• Proactive Monitoring: As Aegis’ systems monitor your data 24/7, you would not have to worry about the security and state of your data.

Read More: How to Mitigate Disaster Recovery Risk with DR-as-a-Service (DRaaS)

Aegis Cloud Disaster Recovery is a solution that simplifies your cloud backup and disaster recovery needs, from Ransomware recovery, complete data protection, minimize server downtime to DR cost saving and business continuity.

With that, we have covered most of what Aegis Cloud Disaster Recovery has got to offer. For more information, do visit the official Aegis website and check out our DR solutions today!

Especially now when remote working has become the new norm of working, business transactions and communication are becoming increasingly prominent on online platforms. Out of all available platforms, the one that stands a head above the rest would without a doubt, be Microsoft Office 365, thus the need to protect Office 365 data.

With the emergence of Microsoft Office 365 in the digital market, it has since revolutionised the concept of working and running a business—allowing for more flexibility, no longer needing to set up VPNs and remote connections in order to access your data when you need it. Due to the mobility offered, this platform is viable for remote working, providing access to work from anywhere and also between devices.

Even with how appealing Office 365 seems, it does come with a weakness, which is the safety of your data. The ease of access to your data is akin to a double-edged sword; this convenience often comes with the risk of exposing your information to endpoints and threats.

Contrary to common misconception, the threats are not only limited to external cyber-attacks such as ransomware but are also caused by misguided users updating the wrong section of a shared resource or deleting the data by accident or on purpose. This shows how susceptible your data is to harm. Due to this, protecting remote Office 365 user data is a critical issue to consider.

Why the Need to Protect Remote Office 365 Data?

With how the concept of Office 365 revolves around the idea increasing access points to your data, you might be wondering shouldn’t Office 365 already have security protocols to protect your data? The answer to this is that it’s not that they do not have any security protocols, but it’s that there are too many types of attacks to counter. If you are someone who often makes use of public WiFi, just the act of connecting to the public internet connection already makes your device vulnerable to cyber-attacks, as it is a notorious breeding ground for attackers.

As for those of you who are working from home and are making use of a home router, you are not entirely safe from a threat either—many routers are not hooked up with a physical firewall and are often configured with less-than-optimal security settings. Aside from that, your home WiFi may even be sending out your network information using the hashtag algorithm that was cracked three years ago, making it easy for any third parties to get a hold of your data. The worst part is, this is merely a few out of the many threats your data can be exposed to, which is why using remote Office 365 may put your data at risk.

Read More: Overcoming the Remote Work Challenges with Microsoft 365 Office Cloud Backup

What Microsoft Office 365 Does and Doesn’t Protect Against

To put it simply, Office 365 protects the hardware the data sits on but not the data itself. It works around the Shared Responsibility Model, which details that Office 365 shares the responsibility with the user. Below is an outlook of what Office 365 is and isn’t responsible for:

1. Responsibility always retained by user: Information and data, devices, accounts and identities.
2. Responsibility varies by service type: Identity and directory infrastructure, applications, network controls, operating system.
3. Responsibility transfers to cloud provider: Physical hosts, physical network, physical datacentre

In short, you are responsible for not only the accounts and devices connecting to the service but the data you are storing on the service. Hence, Microsoft is not responsible for providing an archived copy of your pre-attack data if a virus of any sort were to ever damage your data. Decisive acts regarding when, and how to save your data is your call to make. Even in terms of email retention policies, Office 365 only retains emails for a maximum of 93 days after deletion. This limited retainment period means that you cannot restore any emails that you have accidentally deleted if it has gone past the retention period.

What Remote Office 365 User Data Should You Protect?

The broad answer to what data you should protect would quite simply be everything. Even so, amongst the various services provided by Office 365, there are a few applications that you should place further emphasis on, in terms of user data protection. The applications in question would be those that play a crucial role in enabling remote working, which are the following:

• Exchange Online: this application offers flexibility in accessing your emails, enabling you to access them from not only Outlook on your computer, but also on your phone or any web browser.
• SharePoint Online: this application is a documents manager which allows multiple users to connect and collaborate on a document—providing seamless business interactions.
• OneDrive for Business: an application which allows you to access your files from a web interface, and also map those files as a local drive for quick access and upload.
• Microsoft Teams: a prominent virtual meeting platform which allows users to communicate instantly, share files, and orchestrate meetings with both internal and external users.

As these services and application play a vital role in the shift of work environment to home and remote environments, backing up the data in these platforms would be a necessary security measure to take to ensure that your data is not under threat.

How to Protect Remote Office 365 User Data?

With all that said, it does not mean that you shouldn’t use Microsoft Office 365 at all. Having so many convenient services and applications in its arsenal, it would be such a waste not to make use of Office 365. Therefore, instead of avoiding the use of Office 365, you should focus on educating users of the potential risks and threats of losing Office 365 data. For starters, ensure that your security patches and devices are up to date, and to use a VPN whenever necessary (especially when using a public WiFi). Last but not least, practise backup of your Office 365 data.

From what we have discussed above regarding the responsibility of Office 365, it is clear that Microsoft designed Office 365 to be a cloud-based productivity suite—not a data backup and recovery solution. Therefore, on top of educating Office 365 users, it would be wise to back up your Office 365 data in an external cloud or platform as insurance, so that you can still retrieve your data when it is damaged or corrupted in the Office 365 storage.

Read More: Understanding the Role of Cyber Insurance in Cloud Security

Aegis: Trusted by Malaysians to Protect Office 365 User Data

Although the Microsoft Services Agreement covering all Office 365 products runs more than a staggering 15,000 words, it only discusses the issue of backup in about three instances—all of which suggest setting up your own data backup solution with a third-party provider. If you have no idea which third-party provider to seek out, you could engage the services of Aegis, a pioneer Cloud Disaster Recovery service provider in Malaysia. Offering various cloud products, we believe that Cloud Office 365 Backup (COB) would be of significant use in ensuring the safety of your Office 365 data. Below is a short overview of what Cloud Office 365 Backup (COB) provides:

• A backup service specifically catered to backup and restore Microsoft 365 data, which includes Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SharePoint, and Microsoft OneDrive from Office 365 cloud to Aegis cloud.
• Peace of mind knowing that you have a backup outside of Microsoft.
• Convenience of easily finding and restoring as many files as you need, or even restore an entire user’s data or folder to a point in time.

For more information on Aegis’ products, check out our industry-leading cloud solutions.