Backups, failovers and beyond: What it really takes to maintain uptime
When things go wrong in IT, they go wrong fast. It could be a failed software update, a hardware issue, or a full-blown ransomware attack. One minute, your business is operating smoothly. The next? Systems are down, customers can’t reach you and employees are locked out of critical applications.
Incidents like these aren’t hypothetical. In the past year alone, 75% of organisations reported at least one ransomware attack and 26% were attacked four or more times (source). When you consider that the average cost of downtime for a large organisation runs at more than AU$13,000 per minute – things are going to get costly, very quickly.
When it comes to protecting your business, it’s important to understand how different strategies – like data backups, failover, high availability, disaster recovery and business continuity planning (BCP) – work together to keep your operations running.
From data backup to disaster recovery: What you need to know.
Data backup is exactly what it sounds like, and it’s the foundation of any recovery plan. This involves saving copies of your data at specific points in time, whether hourly, daily, or weekly, depending on your business needs. Backups can be stored on physical media (like tape drives) or in the cloud. However, backups alone don’t guarantee quick recovery – especially when older methods, like tape backups, have failure rates as high as 50%. A backup strategy is essential, but it should never be your sole recovery solution.
Failover acts like a spare tyre – it keeps you moving when the primary system goes down. In IT terms, this means having a redundant system or server ready to take over the workload if something fails. Failover solutions are often pre-configured and automated, so they can switch systems seamlessly with minimal manual intervention. While failover preserves business continuity in the short term, it’s a temporary solution meant to buy you time until the primary system is fixed.
High availability is designed for businesses that can’t afford any disruption. High availability systems are built to minimise downtime by using failover mechanisms within tightly integrated environments. However, high availability typically relies on a redundant system within the same physical data center. If the entire data centre goes down, both the primary and backup systems may fail.
Disaster avoidance adds another layer of protection by mirroring your systems in separate, geographically dispersed locations. Unlike traditional high availability, which keeps the backup in the same data centre, disaster avoidance ensures that even if an entire site goes offline – due to a power outage or natural disaster – your backup site in a different location stays operational. This is what powers zero-downtime hosting solutions like those provided by Macquarie Cloud Services.
Disaster recovery (DR) is the umbrella that covers all these components – backup, failover, high availability and disaster avoidance. DR is your playbook for what happens when disaster strikes, whether it’s a ransomware attack, a server failure, or an accidental deletion of critical files. A DR plan outlines the steps to recover lost data, restore systems and get your operations back on track as quickly as possible. This can include:
- replacing damaged hardware
- restoring data from backups (whether cloud-based or physical)
- performing data integrity checks to ensure nothing is corrupted.
Why backup alone isn’t enough.
A common misconception is that backing up data equals disaster recovery. But backups alone don’t ensure fast recovery or prevent downtime. Without a comprehensive disaster recovery plan (DRP), businesses face long wait times to restore data, compatibility issues with older backups and prolonged outages that can stretch into days – or even weeks.
For example, when UniSuper’s cloud provider mistakenly deleted both primary and backup accounts, it was their robust multi-cloud disaster recovery plan that saved the day. Their data was redundantly stored across different cloud environments, allowing them to recover member information quickly and avoid long-term service disruptions.
The 2024 CrowdStrike outage was another case in point. Organisations with only basic backups were left scrambling for days, while companies with robust DRPs – including Macquarie Cloud Services clients – recovered in hours.
What about business continuity planning?
Business continuity planning (BCP) goes a step beyond disaster recovery. While DRP focuses on restoring IT systems, business continuity planning takes a broader view. BCP defines how your entire organisation – including finance, HR and customer service – will continue to operate during a crisis. A strong business continuity plan (BCP) aligns recovery objectives across teams, ensuring that your organisation doesn’t just survive a crisis – it maintains customer trust, protects its brand and keeps delivering value.
In short, disaster recovery helps you recover what was lost, while business continuity planning ensures that your business stays operational, no matter what.
The three keys of a winning disaster recovery plan
- Simple and clear: Your DRP should be easy to follow, even by non-technical staff. Complex, jargon-filled plans often fail when teams are under pressure.
- Redundancy: Avoid single points of failure by storing data across multiple, geographically dispersed locations. Our Data Vault service offers immutable, off-site backups that remain safe from ransomware and human error.
- Continuous testing and 24/7 support: Testing isn’t a one-time task – it needs to be scheduled and refined regularly. Your DRP should include simulations of real-world scenarios to ensure it works as expected. And when incidents occur, expert support must be available around the clock.
Is your business cyber-resilient?
The threat landscape has evolved, and so must your approach. Business Continuity Planning by Macquarie Cloud Services brings together market-leading advice, support and infrastructure in a single end-to-end service.
We’ll make sure your users, apps, servers and data are always protected and resilient when disaster strikes. Our goal? Making sure that you’re back up and running with minimal downtime, even if the unthinkable occurs.
Disruptions are inevitable – but they don’t have to be catastrophic. Need a second opinion on your current plan? Download our disaster recovery e-guide or call our team at 1800 004 943 for expert advice.
