With every passing month, a flurry of new studies shows the danger that ransomware poses to global IT infrastructure. Whether in finance, healthcare, government or otherwise, every IT sector in the world is, as of now, critically impacted. And according to a recent study by Blackfog, the estimated total cost of ransomware to global business could well climb up beyond $21 billion in 2021, if no major actions are taken.
Estimates for the costs of an outage in 2021 are roughly $85K per hour according to Veeam’s estimates – with approximate downtime averaging around 79 minutes. If that doesn’t send a chill down the spine of every CIO in the world, consider other factors: a loss in customer/client confidence, damage to brand integrity, a lowering of overall employee confidence, costly diversions of emergency resources – and even potential litigation. The list, unfortunately, goes on.
But that’s not to say IT organizations need to take the threat of ransomware lying down. By repurposing tried-and-true technologies like Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) and folding them into new, multi-prong defense strategies that also include data centers, replication and automated recovery technology and support team specialists, IT organizations can start getting an early handle on the threat.
Yes, it’s a tough fight ahead; and true, DR planning requires sizable planning and investment. But in the end, it’s worth it, as the stakes really couldn’t be higher. By incorporating DRaaS into a holistic, elastic defense strategy that’s both on-prem and cloud-based, IT organizations can set the pace (and the example) for their peers in halting ransomware.
Like it or not, ransomware attacks are just another function of IT life in 2021. If there’s a common cause our whole industry can rally around, it ought to be this one.
To support the efforts of already strained IT leaders and business executives, our team at FirstLight has culled and curated new DR information and data into our latest white paper, The Biggest Threat to IT. It’s full of helpful information and resources. If you value the safety and future security of your business or organization, this is a must-read that will help you re-strategize your data and user environments.
