Capital investment is important for even small businesses now. But at the same time, none of these factors are deterrent factors anymore for starting out in the digital age. One needs basically a desktop pc to start on the road to becoming a millionaire without the idea sounding like wishful thinking. And the pillar on which the organisation rests is the information, which is synonymous to data now.

So when this data is lost, stolen or damaged, a company predictably gets into a bit of a soup. And the total loss of data can be more than the company is able to cope with. The strangest part is that despite this immense importance of data, companies still keep losing their store of information through ways that could have been prevented with some foresight and common sense. While the basic understanding that viruses and hackers exist is widespread and more than 80% of the users in Britain are aware of them, precautionary measures are not always adequate on part of companies.

So why are companies hit harder by data loss than an average home user when viruses or hardware failure can affect them both equally? This assumption is inaccurate as there has been a large number of data theft and Intellectual Property (IP) infringement incidents over the last decade, and their number has increased dramatically over the last six to seven years. Companies need to take extra precaution against the following modes of data loss:

This is by far the worst and most common outcome of a total data loss scenario for a company. Due to the lost data, it is no longer possible to conduct business as usual. So all activities that generate money are stopped, while the expenditure goes on as usual. The employees have to be paid whether they work or not. The electricity and water charges and taxes have to be paid as usual, maintenance costs would still remain the same. The longer a downtime period lasts the heavier is the loss suffered by the business.

Recovering data does not happen very fast for companies. Speed and expertise both demand certain expenditure on behalf of the company that wants its data back again. Data recovery companies in the UK are quite competitive and deliver the data fast enough, so it is only natural that they would ask for a stiff price as well. Due to the competition in the market, data recovery companies now offer various packages to suit a variety of budgets. Despite that, the expenses involved in recovering and recreating data all over again is quite high.

Loss of reputation in the market is a major blow for most companies. Data loss makes a business not only lose its market standing, but also the faith of its customers and partners. Anyone wanting to invest in it will think twice, and existing clients may want to withdraw transactions with it. Negative press and general bad publicity will damage it further.

As hinted previously, IP theft is a common problem now. Decades of careful and expensive research can be stolen in a wink and the owner would not come to know till it is too late. While one can always file a court case, it does not reduce the damage and expenses much.

Over 40% of UK data-based industries that did not have a recovery plan ready have shut shop after data loss. This should serve as a potent warning to those who are still careless with their data and makes them take precautions before getting hit by data loss.