Why Having a Disaster Recovery Plan Will Increase Your Revenue

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March 1, 2023

There’s a saying that goes: “Hope for sunshine, but prepare for rain.” As our world becomes increasingly digital, the volume and importance of stored data grow exponentially. Organizations need agile, secure, and scalable solutions to protect this information, and that’s where cloud-hosting steps in. Not only can it reduce operational costs, but perhaps more critically, it’s one of the most powerful tools in your disaster recovery strategy.

When you hear the phrase “disaster recovery,” you might picture major catastrophes like hurricanes or floods. And while those events matter, the most frequent disruptions today are technical: ransomware attacks, outages, system failures, and human error. These issues can bring business to a standstill. In fact, even a single hour of downtime can cost thousands in lost productivity, missed sales, and reputational damage.

So why use cloud hosting as the backbone of your disaster recovery plan?

  1. It’s faster. Modern cloud platforms automate nearly every aspect of disaster recovery. Instead of manually transferring systems between physical servers, cloud-based DR solutions can orchestrate failover processes automatically. That means recovery times are measured in minutes, not days, critical when every second counts.
  2. It’s safer. With traditional on-prem infrastructure, your data may be stored in just one place, making it vulnerable to both physical disasters and malicious attacks. Cloud environments provide geographic redundancy, replicating your data across multiple regions. Even if one site goes down, your systems remain operational elsewhere. Immutable backups and air-gapped storage now add even more protection against threats like ransomware.
  3. It’s more cost-effective. With cloud-hosted disaster recovery, you only pay for the resources you use. On-demand scalability means your DR environment can power up during testing or actual events and shut down afterward, keeping expenses tightly aligned with usage. And you benefit from your provider’s existing infrastructure, without having to make massive capital investments of your own.
  4. It increases your revenue. Yes, really. Cloud-based DR doesn't just reduce downtime; it helps maintain business continuity. Teams can continue working from the cloud during outages, minimizing lost hours and keeping customers satisfied. Some businesses report saving over $150,000 annually in recovered productivity and operational efficiency. In an always-on digital economy, resiliency is a revenue enabler.

There are plenty of reasons to make cloud hosting part of your disaster recovery strategy—but the biggest reason might be this: far too many organizations still aren’t prepared. Studies show that up to 80% of businesses lack a formal disaster recovery plan for their data. That means they're not only losing money, they’re risking everything.

If you want to future-proof your business, it’s time to move beyond hope and start planning for the unexpected. And that plan should absolutely include the cloud.