Dangers of an Outdated Recovery System

Technology is constantly evolving, and companies must keep up with these advancements to maintain top-quality customer service and communication within their organizations. Most businesses operated with on-site storage systems in the past, but now, the norm is changing. 

Outdated technology, sometimes referred to as legacy systems, can be the key reason your business is being held back. Luckily, you can still leap forward with updated, offsite, cloud-based data recovery solutions that take you into the 21st century.

There are many benefits to offsite data backups, and this is the best way to advance your existing recovery system. Updating to newer, offsite options will be vital in helping you avoid any of the many dangers associated with an outdated recovery system.

Operating with an outdated recovery system, or any type of older network, software, or hardware, for that matter, might put you at risk of experiencing some less than desirable circumstances. Some of the most common impacts associated with outdated recovery systems include:

• Higher operating costs and additional expenses for updating your systems or purchasing data restoration (if possible); plus, a potential loss of sales
• Higher risk of security breaches
• More employee downtime, decreased productivity, potential turnover increases, etc.
• Major mobility and connectivity constraints
• Difficulty matching your recovery system’s capabilities as your company scales
• Negative impacts on company reputation and customer satisfaction

All of these things can negatively affect your company and its operations, which is why it’s so critical to keep up with the times and ensure your recovery systems are current with industry standards. Then things will stay running smoothly and securely at your business.

Even if you feel like your facility’s systems are current, it’s still critically important to stay aware of the dangers of outdated systems since technology is evolving every day. Below, we dive further into each of the ways that your business’s ancient recovery system is harming daily operations, so you can stop them before they happen.

1. Higher Costs

As a business owner, saving money is probably at the top of your list of priorities. You might think that putting up with your legacy recovery system is the right choice to cut down costs, but it could actually be eating away at your bottom line.

Not only do older systems cost more to maintain—and operate more slowly, at that—but they also make your business lose money because they’re bound to fail or be breached. When systems are down, and your employees can’t access what they need to work, you’re basically burning up money paying them for nothing.

Updating your systems after a failure occurs can also make emergency expenses much higher. It’s therefore critical that you stay forward-thinking about your business IT solutions before it’s too late. If you do wait until the last minute to make the switch to newer solutions and things start to fail, you might waste money on a pointless attempt at backup recovery that isn’t even possible.

What’s worse, with the added downtime of an outdated recovery system, you might miss out on potential product sales or inquiries about your services. That results in a loss of revenue, which is never good when you’re working tirelessly to grow a viable business.

2. Less Security

Continuing to use a legacy system can leave you at risk for cyberattacks and system failures. As technology moves forward, protecting your legacy recovery system becomes less and less reliable. 

Your existing solutions are likely unable or entirely unequipped to block certain cyberattacks or failures from happening. This puts private client information at risk, which won’t leave your customer base very happy.

Like we mentioned, outdated recovery systems that remain on-site are also likely to fail, even with the most foolproof disaster recovery checklist, which should include the following:

• Mitigating immediate business risks
• Addressing longer-term impacts
• Complying with industry best practices
• Following current regulations
• Addressing concerns
• Resuming business operations

With an up-to-date and offsite system, you won’t have to worry about a looming system failure or figure out what to do after one occurs. Cloud-based offsite data backup solutions give you lock-tight protection from system failures since everything is stored virtually. The guarantee that your organization’s information will always be there makes offsite data recovery systems valuable business tools.

3. Lost Productivity

When you’re running around worrying about where your critical data and files are after a failure, thanks to your outdated on-site system, you can’t stay focused on the work that actually needs to be done. The additional downtime as you attempt to restore the data in your outdated recovery system (if it’s even possible) can be detrimental to your employee productivity. It can also cause potential turnover as employees get more and more frustrated with slow or constantly failing systems. 

Updating your recovery solutions to a more reliable setup allows your teams to work smoothly and efficiently, helping employees avoid unnecessary overtime work and remain happy in their positions.

4. Lower Mobility

Another thing you lose out on with your old recovery system is giving your employees the ability to work from home or anywhere remotely in the world. An outdated recovery system isn’t equipped to handle the hand-off of secure files over the internet like cloud-based storage and computing systems can. However, if you make the switch to a cloud storage system, your teams can take advantage of all the stored files they might have to access from almost any location without worrying about a security breach.

Not only are cloud storage systems incredibly secure, but they can also be a key element in improving employee productivity. Cloud systems allow your teams to work from virtually anywhere they want; The one thing required is a reliable internet connection. After that, it’s effortless to access anything and everything they might need for work all in one secure place. Cloud services are a critical investment if you want to keep up with the competition in your sector and keep customers happy.

5. Lack of Scalability

Solutions often stop supporting specific applications and software when operating systems update. This is something you may have already experienced with your smartphone, but the same goes for your data recovery system. Outdated systems can make it nearly impossible to scale your existing solutions as your enterprise expands unless it is up to date. Outdated recovery systems are frequently a huge factor in what’s holding your business back from faster, smoother communication, downloads, and access to critical data.

6. Adverse Customer Impacts

Your business’s workforce isn’t the only thing that is negatively impacted by an outdated recovery system. Backup failures, connectivity issues, and other disruptions can have a damning effect on your organization’s reputation, harboring distrust amongst your loyal customers or even potential investors.

It can be incredibly challenging to bring your business reputation back from the brink after customers experience such severe problems. That’s why updating your recovery system, along with additional hardware and software solutions, should remain a top priority as your company grows. It will help you uphold your reputation in your industry and keep customers (or important investors) satisfied with your products and services.

Stay Up to Date With Total IT

If you suspect your recovery system is outdated after reading the above information, it’s time to start considering the switch to a new, more efficient solution for your business. Total IT is a Dallas-Fort Worth-based IT company that offers robust recovery systems, backup services, and additional business IT solutions that are sure to improve your employee productivity and client satisfaction tenfold. Contact Total IT today to speak with a specialist about updating your old recovery system and get a real boost to your organization across the board, avoiding the costly dangers of outdated solutions.