Backup & Disaster Recovery Planning 101
Your small to mid-size business is operating at full capacity. You’re getting new customers every day, your suppliers are meeting their orders, and you’re experiencing rapid growth. Everything is running smoothly. Then, disaster strikes.
“Disaster” can take many forms for a business: from natural disasters like floods, fires or severe storms to more human threats like cyber attacks, data breaches or internal mistakes – and sometimes even hardware failure.
Many of these disasters are simply beyond your control. Between digital and physical threats, it’s important to understand there is no such thing as perfect and complete protection for your company’s network.
So, what are some of the actionable steps that businesses like yours can take to better prepare for surviving the unexpected? We are here to share our top backup and disaster recovery planning tips to prepare your operation to power through the unexpected.
Disaster Recovery in the Cloud
According to Gartner, 90% of disaster recovery operations will run in the Cloud. Cloud-based backup and disaster recovery is a strategy that involves storing copies of your business-critical data in the cloud. This offers an easier and more flexible way to recover data in the event of a disaster.
A strong backup and disaster recovery plan allows for continuity of services and the ability to failover to a second location if there is a complete interruption of IT systems.
“During a disaster getting access to data as quickly as possible is key!”
You can do this by ensuring you have:
A documented plan that evolves with you
Discuss and prepare a formal, written disaster recovery plan that documents important processes, contact information and assets in the event of an emergency. Define the things that keep your business running (data backup, computer equipment, email accessibility, etc.) and how quickly you need to resume business post-disaster. Provide clear instructions and guidance for your team to use, and be sure someone has responsibility for executing the plan.
Test your disaster recovery plan
Your disaster recovery plan must be tested at least once annually to truly keep your business afloat. By simulating realistic circumstances that can apply to actual emergencies, the testing phase becomes crucial in helping you maintain business continuity after a disaster. During this process, it’s also important to make sure the team responsible for regularly updating the plan accounts for significant changes to your systems, policies and personnel.
Off-site backups and storage
During any catastrophic event, getting access to data as quickly as possible is key. Every company should carry out regularly scheduled, frequent backups for continuous data protection and ensure their data is secure and accessible immediately following a crisis. Having both an on-location and an off-site set of backups is key to ensuring that no matter what, you have access to a relatively recent instance of your business’ IT systems.
Working with Houston
Often small to mid-size businesses lack the technical personnel, budget or time to internally design and implement complex disaster recovery plans. Partnering with us at Houston will allow you to focus on running your business without leaving this critical safeguard incomplete.
Houston will work alongside you to make sure the right server, network and storage infrastructure is in place in your disaster recovery plan. We will also ensure that the entire process will be kept up to date and tested regularly to make sure it is reliable.
Contact us!
We’re dedicated to helping businesses of all sizes and industries protect against rising threats and potential disasters. Giving you the best chances for success matters to us, and we’ll do everything in our power to ensure complete protection. When you are equipped with a foolproof and powerful business continuity and disaster recovery plan, you’ll never have to worry about losing face with customers should a disaster occur. Contact us today to learn more!