Cloud-based model brings reliable and affordable business continuity services to businesses and opens new market for the channel

16th November 2010 - Hosted IT infrastructure provider Rise – www.rise-partners.co.uk – has launched cloud-based business continuity solutions for SMEs. Available through Rise’s growing network of channel partners, they will provide a range of services to secure business-critical data from a secure backup service through to full disaster recovery.

Rise’s cloud delivery model will enable SMEs to get access to reliable, high availability business continuity solutions which may not have previously been available to them due to their size of organisation or prohibitive through cost.

Recent figures from the London Chamber of Commerce* suggest that 20% of all companies will suffer some form of disaster – of those without a continuity plan, 43% will never re-open, 80% fail within 13 months and 53% of claimants don’t recoup losses incurred by a disaster.

Alex Hilton, channel sales director Rise comments: “Unplanned IT system loss can occur at any time through human error, hardware fault, malicious act or site disaster. As the figures above confirm, the ramifications are likely to be dramatic or even catastrophic on a company’s ability to trade and operate. Knowing where to begin and how to simplify the process of business continuity stops many before they even start. With less resource at their disposal and other pressing business issues on the MDs agenda, SMEs are traditionally more susceptible to failing to implement a suitable business continuity strategy.”

Many businesses are required to implement business continuity plans to comply with insurance requirements, whilst others do it for good governance and to protect their investment. SMEs often have limited IT staff and can be guilty of performing backup activities sporadically, if at all. Furthermore, backup tapes are frequently left on-site, eliminating the possibility of recovering from site wide disasters.

Hilton continues, “Business continuity solutions from Rise remove this unnecessary layer of complication and enable SMEs to safely, securely and cost effectively outsource this function to a trusted third party. In addition to benefits to the SME, we also believe that these services provide a lucrative opportunity for channel resellers. Business continuity continues to be a growing market and leveraging the benefits of cloud make it more appealing than ever.”