The implications of disaster recovery are directly tied to your data. Is your data mission critical? In many instances, critical systems and data drive the business. If these services stop, the business stops. When calculating the cost of downtime, considerations include the following:
File transfers and file storage
E-mail, calendaring, and collaboration
Web hosting
Critical databases
Productivity
Reputation
Continuous availability of critical business systems is no longer a luxury; it is a competitive business requirement.The Gartner Group estimates that 40% of enterprises that experience a disaster will go out of business in five years, and only 15% of enterprises have a full-fledged business continuity plan that goes beyond core technology and infrastructure.
The cost to the business for each one hour of service outage includes the following:
Income loss measured as the income-generating ability of the service, data, or impacted group
Productivity loss measured as the hourly cost of impacted employees
Recovery cost measured as the hourly cost of IT personnel to get services back online
Future lost revenue because of customer and partner perception