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With the arrival of NIS2, the focus is shifting from pure security to demonstrable resilience. Not only protection, but also recovery is becoming an explicit responsibility of management.
For SMEs, that means one thing: digital resilience is no longer optional, but a condition for staying operational.
Yet at Easi, we still see Disaster Recovery (DR) too often being viewed as an additional cost rather than a strategic investment.
And that is exactly where things go wrong.
This article was originally published as an interview with Dirk Slechten in Voka Magazine Ondernemers | Vlaams-Brabant 2026 #4.
From IT measure to business continuity
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The way cyberattacks happen today has fundamentally changed. Automation, scale and artificial intelligence mean that every organisation is now a potential target.
“Many SMEs still believe they are too small to be of interest to hackers. In reality, vulnerabilities are continuously scanned automatically, and smaller organisations are often easier targets,” explains Dirk Slechten, Executive System Engineer at Easi.
That is why Disaster Recovery is no longer just an IT story, but a business story. Without a well-thought-out recovery plan, you risk:
- operations coming to a standstill
- loss of customer trust
- contractual penalties
- GDPR sanctions
- and under NIS2, even management liability
Why backups alone are not enough
One of the biggest misconceptions we see is: “we have backups, so we are protected.”
That is not true.
Modern ransomware works differently. It often remains hidden in systems for months before striking. Without detection and monitoring, you risk simply restoring an infected backup.
Dirk adds: “Recovering without detection is dangerous. You may reactivate the exact same attack. Detection, isolation and controlled recovery are essential to become truly resilient.”
A strong Disaster Recovery strategy therefore combines:
- proactive detection (EDR/XDR)
- isolated and immutable backups
- tested recovery procedures
The real, underestimated cost of downtime
Many organisations focus on the cost of DR, but forget the cost of doing nothing.
At Easi, we make this tangible through the Total Cost of Downtime (TCD):
TCD = W + I + R + C + P
| W | = | Loss of wages |
| I | = | Loss of income |
| R | = | Recovery costs (external IT) |
| C | = | Contractual penalties |
| P | = | Permanent customer loss |
An SME with 50 employees that is down for just two days can quickly face losses of between €80,000 and €150,000, without even taking reputational damage or ransom payments into account.
That completely changes the perspective: Disaster Recovery is not a cost, but pure risk mitigation.
Sovereign cloud: control over your data and your risks
Within this story, sovereign cloud is also playing an increasingly important role.
For SMEs, this means in concrete terms:
- data remains within the EU
- management is handled by locally screened experts
- everything falls under European legislation
- no dependency on foreign hyperscalers
“Sovereign cloud is not just about technology, but about control. Control over your data, your compliance and your continuity,” Dirk adds.
For organisations working towards NIS2 or other regulations, this is not a detail, but a strategic choice.
Start with Disaster Recovery in 3 concrete steps
For companies that want to get started today, at Easi we apply a pragmatic approach:
1. Choose the right partner
Work with a European partner with transparent infrastructure and proven security expertise.
2. Implement immutable backups
Backups that cannot be changed or deleted, even during an attack.
3. Test your recovery
Identify your critical systems and test whether you can actually recover within an agreed timeframe.
Without testing, there is no guarantee.
From compliance to strategic advantage
What we see today with our customers is clear:
Organisations that invest in Disaster Recovery and digital resilience are not only better protected...
They are also:
- back up and running faster after incidents
- more reliable towards customers and partners
- stronger in compliance journeys such as NIS2
And above all: they are in control.
Ready to strengthen your digital resilience?
At Easi, we help organisations with a pragmatic and partnership-driven approach around:
👉 Discover more about our approach
👉 Contact our experts
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Olivier Cuyvers |
Dirk Slechten |
Join us at Cybersec Europe 2026
This year, Easi returns to the largest IT trade fair in Belgium with a completely new and expanded booth.
Meet our experts, discover how to secure your IT/OT environments, and get answers to all your questions on SOC, SASE, and more.
The latest innovations in IT and cybersecurity take center stage, with topics such as Disaster Recovery and sovereign cloud certainly part of the conversation, alongside other key themes like AI in IT and GRC.
