The backup myth that is putting businesses at risk

Ransomware and other cyberthreats often dominate conversations about data loss, but they are not the only risks businesses face. Everyday issues such as hardware failures, accidental deletions and power outages can bring operations to a halt just as quickly.

The countermeasure businesses adopt is backing up their data. The assumption is simple — if data is saved, it can be restored. But this overlooks a critical factor. Backup does not keep a business running during a disruption. It only helps recover after the damage is done.

That gap is where the real risk lies. When systems are down, employees can’t work, customers can’t access services and revenue stops immediately. According to research by Oxford Economics, downtime costs businesses roughly $9,000 per minute, or $540,000 per hour.

At that scale, even short interruptions are no longer acceptable. Organizations need more than data protection. They need business continuity.

In this article, we’ll look at how relying solely on backups leaves organizations exposed — and why a comprehensive business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR) strategy is essential to keep operations running.

The growing gap between backup and recovery

Many small businesses are protected on paper, but not in practice. The issue is not whether data is backed up, but rather how quickly that data can be restored — and whether the business can function during that process.

The  State of BCDR Report 2025 by Datto, a Kaseya company, found that more than 60% of organizations believed they could recover in under a day. However, in practice, only 35% achieved that during real downtime events.

A common misconception among small businesses is that backup equals protection.

Imagine a ransomware attack encrypts a company’s systems.

With a traditional backup setup, the response is straightforward. Identify the breach, wipe affected systems and begin restoring data from backups. Depending on the size of the environment, this process can take hours or even days.

Now consider the same situation with a BCDR solution in place.

Instead of waiting for full restoration, systems can be quickly spun up from recent backups, often within minutes. Operations continue in a virtualized environment while the primary systems are restored in the background. The disruption is contained, and the business continues to run.

This is the gap many businesses overlook. Backup is designed to store and retrieve data while BCDR is designed to maintain operations.

The cost of downtime

To better understand the cost of downtime, consider the following example. Let’s say your business has 100 employees, the average hourly revenue is $1,500 and the backup data set is 2 TB. Given these parameters, a full restore from a local backup using traditional backup software could take more than eight hours. The associated downtime would cost approximately $34,000 in lost revenue.

Beyond direct losses, downtime also affects reputation. Customers expect consistent access to services. When systems are unavailable, trust is affected. Delays, failed transactions and lack of access create friction that can push customers toward competitors. For service-based businesses, even a single disruption can lead to long-term client loss.

This is why business continuity is now a baseline requirement. It’s part of how businesses maintain operations and protect customer relationships.

The right BCDR solution

Modern BCDR solutions allow systems to stay available through failover and rapid recovery, limiting financial losses and disruption.

Hybrid cloud backup is one of the most effective approaches. By combining local and cloud-based recovery, it delivers both speed and flexibility. Local backups provide near-instant recovery for common issues, while cloud replication protects against larger incidents such as ransomware or infrastructure failures.

If local systems are compromised by a ransomware attack, clean and isolated copies of data remain available in the cloud. Recovery does not depend on paying a ransom or negotiating access. The business retains control.

That continuity is what defines a strong BCDR solution. Datto BCDR is built around this principle, delivering the speed to recover from everyday disruptions and the reliability to handle larger failures without adding complexity for your business or clients.

Turning BCDR into a growth opportunity

BCDR supports long-term growth for MSPs by supporting a recurring service model. At a time when it’s challenging to acquire new customers, this matters more than ever. The 2026 State of the MSP Report by Kaseya found that 71% of MSPs consider acquiring new customers their biggest challenge.

This makes expanding services within existing accounts far more valuable. In this context, BCDR stands out as a category with steady adoption and strong growth, creating a clear opportunity for MSPs to build consistent revenue while strengthening client relationships.

How to have a winning BCDR sales conversation

Clients understand data loss. They can picture files disappearing. What they struggle to grasp is downtime and its impact on revenue and reputation. That gap often leads to underinvestment, with clients settling for basic backup and assuming they’re covered.

To bridge this gap, MSPs need to change how they frame the conversation.

Shift the conversation from technology to business impact

Most clients don’t think in terms of backup frequency or storage capacity. They think about whether their business can continue operating.

Instead of focusing on features, focus on outcomes:

• What happens if systems are unavailable for three hours?
• How much revenue is lost during that time?
• How many employees are unable to work?
• How long will it take to fully recover?

When framed this way, the discussion moves away from IT spend and toward business continuity. Tools like Datto’s recovery time calculator can help quantify this impact. When clients see downtime expressed in financial terms, the value of BCDR becomes clearer.

Make recovery concepts easy to understand

Technical terms like recovery time objective (RTO) and recovery point objective (RPO) can create confusion if introduced too early.

Start with simple questions:

• If your systems are down for a full day, can your business operate?
• If you lose a day of data, what does that mean for revenue and customer commitments?

Then connect those answers to recovery metrics. Real scenarios help reinforce this. For example, if a business backs up data once per day and an incident occurs just before the next backup, all recent work is lost. For most organizations, that level of loss is not acceptable.

Taking the next step

Building and communicating a strong BCDR strategy requires the right tools and a clear way to show clients what is at stake and how to address it.

This BCDR Made MSPeasy eBook walks through this step by step. It includes practical examples, case studies and strategies that show how to position business continuity, quantify its value and turn it into a service clients understand and adopt.

Download the eBook and start building a continuity strategy that works for both you and your clients.

Sponsored and written by Datto.