From Vinyl to Virtual: The Case for Analog Redundancy in Digital Times
For many of us, owning physical, truly analog copies of important items brings a tangible sense of comfort. Perhaps that’s why vinyl record sales experienced a 17% increase in revenue from 2022 to 2023 reaching a remarkable $1.2 billion, marking the 16th year of consecutive growth. Companies would do well to pay attention to this nostalgic renaissance - after all, analog backups and redundancy are critical to managing the harsh realities of the marketplace. Take the recent mishap at CrowdStrike, where a simple coding error caused significant industry disruption. Implementing fail-safe structures (Hello floppy disk, long-time no see CD-ROM!) can help your company function in an age of digital malfunction.
The habits and lessons taught at university rarely translate to the unpredictable real world. The debacle at CrowdStrike last week is a stark reminder of the importance of ensuring that product updates are vetted by humans with protocols in place to audit testing before released to the market.
The CrowdStrike incident revealed another glaring oversight - the absence of analog backup systems downstream prior to the update. Such systems are vital for ensuring continuity should a crisis arise.
Going back to our beloved vinyl- if your Spotify account was suddenly hit by a denial of service (DDoS) attack, could you want to live without your favorite tunes? (We couldn’t!) Having a record player along with your oldies guarantees you can still appreciate your favorite playlist.
The matter of succession is another topic that ties into our need for analog in our digital world. Executives and key employees can leave at any given time - often leaving a gaping hole, especially in the world of micro- and small-cap businesses that operate lean compared to larger counterparts. If there is no succession plan in place, no stop gap fix to ensure things keep running smoothly, companies can be in major trouble.
The CrowdStrike mishap should be seen as a wakeup call. Blend older systems with newer ones. While AI and other new tech is exciting, many are still unproven. Companies too, that neglect quality control are at a higher risk of damaging their reputation and losing the trust of shareholders and customers alike It is vital to have comprehensive backups in place to ensure business runs uninterrupted. The question is: can this really ever happen?
