Statistics show that 43 percent of companies that experience a major loss of data will never reopen, and 51 percent will close within two years. The long-term survival rate for these businesses is a mere 6 percent.

How well prepared is your business in the event of a major disruption and data loss?One way to ensure that a business can stay open after suffering a major data loss is by having a proper backup and recovery system in place. During the upcoming Cloud4SMB Expo session – “Cloud-Powered BC/DR: How Will You Handle an Unexpected Disruption?” – experts will address the latest cloud-based Recovery-as-a-Service (RaaS) options and discuss ways to ensure your business is able to withstand an unexpected outage that could potentially result in significant data loss and operational outages, which, by IDC’s (News - Alert) estimates, costs businesses upwards of $84,000 per hour or downtime.

Joshua Geist, CEO at Geminare Incorporated and one of the session’s panelists, said there has been a landscape change with a focus on small and medium-sized businesses (SMB) and the technologies they can now tap into, such as RaaS. 

“Enterprise solutions, which were once only available to the Fortune 500 market through two to three solution providers, are now available to the masses. The SMB market has been the biggest beneficiary of this huge technology normalization which has happened,” Geist said. “It’s easy to see this by recognizing the providers that are in front of you on this panel. They did not exist five or so years ago.”

Seemingly overnight, the RaaS marketplace has created hundreds of technology vendors, and with so many solution providers and options for the SMB market, the choices can appear overwhelming. 

But according to Geist, a successful cloud-based BC/DR plan is largely about finding the right partner. 

“There are lots of service providers and each one has their own benefits and ‘core competencies.’ This is more prevalent today than ever before,” he said. “Find the partner with the right fit.”

The biggest adopter of cloud-based BC/DR solutions, according to Geist, are regulated industries, such as legal, financial, government and education, followed by the SMB segment, which often has budget and resource constraints.

With the rise of so many cloud-based BC/DR providers and varied solutions, SMBs have many options to consider, Geist added. But there is no magic solution.

“That is why cloud-based BC/DR solutions have such a wide variety of options, costs and stories and also explains why the large players can continue to offer solutions in the space while they build out cloud ones. Both still work,” Geist said. “However, if you look at cloud-based BC/DR as more of a toolkit to get the job done and not an instantly, no cost miracle solution you can see massive success. Companies that are looking at their BC/DR solution more holistically are absolutely seeing huge success in their capabilities, cost reductions and overall efficiencies.”

Cloud4SMB Expo kicks off today, Tuesday, Oct. 2, at the Austin Convention Center. 

Want to learn more about cloud computing solutions geared specifically toward small to medium-sized businesses? Don’t miss the Cloud4SMB Expo, collocated with ITEXPO Austin 2012 happening now, in Austin, TX. Stay in touch with everything happening at Cloud4SMB Expo. Follow us on Twitter.