What to do before Disaster Strikes.

Disaster is not a matter of if, but when.  Nobody wants to think about it, but disastrous events happen every day.  There are natural disasters such as hurricanes, earthquakes, and fires, but another major threat is that of hackers.  Small to medium businesses are prime targets for hackers because they often don’t have the security measures in place to prevent these attacks.  Then there is human error, someone presses the wrong button or clicks on that phishing email link, compromising the whole company.  Any of these events can have a grave impact on a company, but they are better apt to weather the storm (pun intended) with a Disaster Recovery Plan (DR Plan).

Planning Ahead

First and foremost, it is essential to put a plan in place.   To begin, identify what data or systems are most critical to keep your business up and running. Second, decide how long you are willing to wait between disaster and recovery.  Be sure to take into consideration the effects of lost productivity and or sales.  Keep in mind that this has a cost factor associated with it.   With a strategic DR Plan, you can minimize your company’s downtime from days to minutes.  There are various options available for data backup and recovery, and we can help you choose one that meets all the requirements for your organizations.

Once you have a plan, assign a chain of command within the organization.   Be sure that each employee’s role is clearly defined.  To avoid having all your eggs in one basket, have multiple employees trained for each task.

Practice

Run simulated disaster events to prepare your employees. Mock disasters can help highlight critical holes in your plan and allow you to learn from your mistakes.

We would also recommend having printouts of important information, such as employee and vendor contact lists, insurance policies and account numbers, etc.

Recovery

So, disaster strikes, but with a DR Plan in place, there is no need to worry.  You know where your data is, and your team is prepared to follow the procedure to get your company up and running.

Our network engineers are pretty amazing, but they are not magicians.  When data is compromised or lost in a security breach or natural disaster, and there is no backup, there is not much that we can do.   With a DR Plan in place, you can sleep secure in the knowledge that the things that matter most to your company are well protected.

If you need help sorting through all the various options of backup and recovery, we can help you. Business’ continuity is one of our top priorities, let our team of experienced network administrators help you decide which backup strategy is best for your size company and budget.

Call us today for a free network assessment (866) 628-3240.