David Lenz, Vice President, Asia Pacific, Arcserve
Businesses everywhere are under severe pressure from rising costs. EOFY is the perfect opportunity for Australian SMBs to rethink their operational expenditures and set the agenda for the new year ahead. It is also the time to consider the implications of the recent Federal Budget’s focus on cybersecurity and the Government’s technology investment boost to support digital adoption by small businesses.
Here are some things to include in your EOFY checklist to address the need for greater cybersecurity resilience through protecting, storing and backing up data while managing costs:
Keep your guard up – Rising costs aren’t your only problem. War is raging in Ukraine, and the threat of all-out cyberattacks increases daily. Bad actors will look for opportunities to exploit a challenging situation and attack you when you’re most vulnerable. Indeed, when you’re struggling economically, your cybersecurity risk is higher than ever—because that’s when attackers perceive you as easy prey. A proper backup and recovery plan lets you protect your data even if a cyberattack victimises you. Your business should look for an “immutable” data-storage solution that safeguards information continuously by taking snapshots every 90 seconds. Even if you fall victim to an attack, your data remains protected and can be easily recovered.
Embrace hybrid working – With the rising cost of fuel, many workers want to stay at home rather than spend their money commuting to the office. Many Australian companies successfully implemented remote and hybrid work programs during the pandemic. Continuing these policies can go a long way toward protecting the financial health of workers, keeping them happier and more productive. However, when your workers are remote, your data is further fragmented, compounding your vulnerabilities. More support is needed to manage and protect data at remote locations effectively. The good news is that there are now simple, low-cost solutions that can effectively back up and protect data in your remote environments without deploying additional resources or capital.
Know which pieces of your data are most critical – All data is not equally valuable. If you’re on a mission to save money, it might not be necessary to store or back up every bit and byte of data in your business. Look for storage solutions that offer data-management capabilities like data tiering. Data tiering is a method by which less frequently used data moves to cheaper storage levels or “tiers,” helping you save money on data storage while avoiding damage to your most essential data. Maintaining healthy processes around data hygiene can help you efficiently retain and back up all your critical data—and offload the data you don’t need. Another advantage to data tiering is improved energy savings—and cost savings—because you will need less compute power to store your business-critical data.
Don’t skimp on data backup and security – You need to ensure that your data-protection program is not impacted by any budget cuts you consider. It may look like an easy place to save money. But any reductions to your data defenses will come with costs down the road. The 2021 IBM Cost of a Data Breach Report found that the average cost of a breach to an Australia business in 2021 was A$3.87 million. It’s critical to recognise the importance of your data and make sure that any cuts to your budget have minimal impact on your business operations.
One of the incentives within the Federal Budget boost will allow small businesses with less than AU$50 million in turnover to deduct an additional 20% of the cost incurred on business expenses and depreciating assets that support their digital adoption, such as portable payment devices, cybersecurity systems, or subscriptions to cloud-based services. Investments of up to $100,000 per year will be supported by this new measure. Look for cost-effective, next-generation solutions that enable you to safeguard your data and grow your business. The best solutions can quickly recover individual files and systems in minutes while ensuring that the data is always available.
