Business downtime is a costly affair. In 2015, Apple lost $25 million in sales because its app store was down for 12 hours. No matter how big your business is, you cannot afford to lose money due to downtime.
Does your business have a plan in case of an emergency? With an IT disaster recovery plan in place, you can minimize your risk of downtime. In this article, we’ll explain an IT emergency plan works and how you can implement one for your business.
What is IT Disaster Recovery?
An IT disaster recovery plan is a strategy developed to restore a business’s computer hardware, applications, and data when an unexpected crash occurs. These plans are designed to protect valuable business data from being permanently lost.
Developing a Disaster Recovery Strategy
While some of the specifics for every disaster recovery plan may be different, the fundamentals of planning are always the same. Let’s take a look at those fundamentals.
Identifying and Preparing for Risks
The first step to a successful disaster recovery plan is identifying and preparing for potential risks.
There are many things that can go wrong with your IT infrastructure.
Fires, loss of power, cyber theft, and hardware failure can be some of the biggest threats to your system’s integrity. Proper responses to each threat should be included in your disaster recovery plan. For example, in case of a hardware loss event, all data should get backed up or stored in the cloud.
Take Stock of Resources
The next thing to consider is a list of all your business’s IT-related resources. This is done to understand what your vulnerabilities are and plan for when they fail. Resources include all hardware, software, applications, and data.
Data Backup
With your IT resources accounted for, your next priority should be a data backup. Data backups ensure that your valuable business information gets kept safe and, in case of disaster, also ensure business operations can get back to normal as quickly as possible.
Data can get backed up on physical devices or in the cloud. Hard drives, SSDs, USB drives, and tape are all used to store data off-site. Cloud servers are responsible for keeping data safe when it is not stored on a physical device or machine.
At least one complete backup should get stored off-site and another complete backup should be in the cloud.
Develop a Procedure
Once risks get identified, resources are accounted for, and data backups are secure, it’s time to develop a working procedure. This procedure must be communicated with members of your staff beforehand.
It’s important that all of the departments of your business are on the same page with the protocols. They must get trained regularly and understand what their roles and responsibilities are. This ensures that no one gets caught off-guard when disaster strikes.
Get an IT Disaster Recovery Plan Today
As a business owner, the last thing you want is for disaster to strike with no plan in place to respond. With an IT disaster recovery plan in place, you can rest assured your business is safe.
Are you interested in IT disaster recovery solutions for your business or organization? Contact us today!