If the real answer is actually ‘no’ then answer this…prior to any disaster ever occurring ask yourself the following;-
• Do you have a disaster recovery solution in place? Can you trust it?
• When was the last time your data backup was tested?
• How long does it take to recover from your current backup solution?
• How long can you realistically be down? 1 hour? 1 day?
• What is the financial cost of downtime to your business?
• When a disaster occurs, is there an offsite copy?
‘No’ disaster continuity plan?
If no plan is in place then here are the important things you need to implement now:-
Make sure you have a back-up of your data
If you have a crash or hack or server failure, resulting in you losing your data and you haven’t backed up then for many businesses you are facing a real disaster (for some teams they may as well lock up and walk away). Apparently two-thirds of companies whom have a significant data loss do not last another year trading – so this subject could prove crucially important. Paperless offices mean electronic data is everything. With many ways to back up, on-site with one appliance, by off-site back up data tapes or to the cloud. Test your back up data on a regular basis.
Put Pen To Paper
Always have your Disaster Recovery Plan written down, companies that cope well do so because they have a written DR Plan they can put their hands straight on. Ensure that you cover the critical parts of your business first, the parts that if hit then are protected first.
Assign the ‘Go to DR Guy’
Have one person responsible for running your DR plan. They can make sure it gets executed correctly and efficiently, they can also make sure that everything is kept updated and that all staff are trained in order to make things much smoother in the event of the DR plan needing to being used.
Assign who is in the ‘DR Plan Team’
If you have multi sites then it really is beneficial to have a team in place at each site and then in the event of the plan needing to be executed anywhere or at multiple locations you will have a fully trained team who are equipped to keep everything running as calmly as possible to protecting the business if such disasters do ever strike.
Disaster Recovery Plan Drill
Do you have a regular fire drill to keep yourself and your staff safe? Similarly it is also important you have a DR Plan drill every six months with all the relevant trained people dealing with the physical drill as though disaster has struck. Then later you can sit down afterward and discuss where tweaks can be made, this plan could save your business so it has to be right. It is important you are always ready, your staff are ready and the plan is always ready to keep your business safe and ready.
If you would like to talk to one of our team to get any point clarifying please do not hesitate to contact us. Call us now for free on 0800 408 0807
