When it comes to having a backup disaster plan for security systems and communications systems, a shocking number of businesses don’t have a backup system at all. Many times, businesses assume that their network management is strong enough with basic firewall protections and/or there’s such a small amount of sensitive data that it would be easy to detect any security breaches.

In reality, having a backup security system in place is one of the most important things that any business can do, regardless of its size, its location, or the products/services it sells. Here are just a few numbers that might elucidate the importance of backup systems:

43%: The percentage of companies that experienced a data breach during 2013, whether it was a large-scale breach of consumer and business information, or whether it involved a small malware virus that could be removed easily by a professional. Nevertheless, individual companies can end up spending months — and thousands, if not millions, of dollars — trying to regain losses after a data breach has occurred. In many cases, the information stolen becomes lost forever or no longer useful.

12,000: The number of laptops lost at U.S. airports each week. If you conduct business on mobile devices — and you probably do, especially if you travel a lot — it’s incredibly easy to misplace these devices or have them stolen. If you keep too much information located on just one device, you may never be able to recover it.

140,000: The number of hard drives that crash each week, on average, in the U.S. Again, without a backup network design and server configuration, information can be lost if it’s only located on one hard drive — and although computer experts can sometimes recover bits of information from a dead hard drive, it’s rare than every piece of information can be recovered.

Remember, you’ve worked hard to create and sustain a successful business! You owe it to yourself, to your employees, and to your customers to have a reliable backup plan in place.