Being prepared for disaster begins with being realistic. You know that if your IT systems went down for any length of time, it would affect your business. But do you know at what cost? Calculating the cost of downtime in the event of a disaster is the first critical step to establishing a disaster recovery plan.
TECA Data Safe provides a free Cost of Downtime Calculator to give businesses like yours the realistic picture you need to create the most effective disaster recovery plan possible. By using this calculator, you’ll have a clear perspective on the costs associated with downtime. This information will allow you to determine the size of investment you want to make to ensure that your business will recover faster after a disaster.
Your company information
The first section of the calculator deals with your business revenue. (Be assured our site is secure and we’re not capturing any of your information.) You’ll need to input your company’s gross annual revenue, plus the number of hours per day and days per year your business is operating. This will result in the approximate revenue per hour that your business generates.
Downtime event
Let’s imagine the worst—a tornado or a blizzard or a fire.
- Your systems go down and it’s a week before power is restored and you can bring them back up again. Insert that number in the first box.
- Next, consider how many of your staff would be impacted by a business shutdown. Hourly employees would lose income. Big business shortfalls could impact all employees through loss of bonuses, commissions, or raises. Insert this number into the second box.
- After that, you’ll want to calculate the percentage of productivity lost. With your systems down, can your employees work at all? If not, you’ve lost 100% productivity. Calculate the wage of employee per hour by averaging both hourly and salaried employee wages.
- Finally, estimate what percentage of business you’ve lost that is irrecoverable. For example, if your boutique was closed for a week and you lost online sales as well as foot traffic to your brick and mortar establishment, those sales are gone for good.
Cost of downtime
You should have the final figures in the last set of boxes, giving you the cost of the downtime event as it relates to wages and lost revenue, the hourly cost, and finally, the total cost per downtime event. These final figures offer a sobering calculation of what could potentially happen to your business if your IT systems were lost for just seven days.
Fortunately, this potential cost can be used as a first step in preparing for disaster and planning for recovery time objectives. In this way, you can fully appreciate the value of a strategic IT disaster recovery solution and determine the investment your company should make for its implementation.
For more information about Disaster Recovery Planning, download our free white paper, “Ten Key Steps to Surviving & Succeeding After an IT Disaster,” or contact TECA Data Safe.
If you’re not testing your Disaster Recovery Plan for effectiveness, you might be just as vulnerable as you would be if you had no plan at all. DR testing will reveal issues and gaps in your plan, enabling you to make adjustments so that when a real disaster strikes, you can feel confident about a quick and complete recovery. TECA Data Safe recommends you test your systems at least once a year.
Call 1-888-398-6235 to schedule your DR test today.
Winter weather can put your business into a deep freeze. Which of the following statements are true?
True or False?
In 1988, a Norwegian computer pioneer disconnected Norway from the Internet by unplugging a single cable.
True. To avoid the threat of a fast-spreading computer virus, Pål Spilling disconnected Norway from the rest of the Internet by unplugging a single cable.
Originally, Amazon’s founder wanted to name the web giant, “Cadabra,” (as in “abracadabra”) to express how magical shopping on the site would be.
True. He switched to “Amazon” after many others kept mishearing the name as “cadaver.”
Videophone and video chat capability have been around since FDR was president.
False. However, it has been around since 1970, but never caught on, likely due to the high cost for service — $160/month (equivalent to $947) — for 30 minutes of video chat.
Choosing the Best x86 Hosting Solution for Your Business
