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.
“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:
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:
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.
Within this story, sovereign cloud is also playing an increasingly important role.
For SMEs, this means in concrete terms:
“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.
For companies that want to get started today, at Easi we apply a pragmatic approach:
Work with a European partner with transparent infrastructure and proven security expertise.
Backups that cannot be changed or deleted, even during an attack.
Identify your critical systems and test whether you can actually recover within an agreed timeframe.
Without testing, there is no guarantee.
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:
And above all: they are in control.
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.