June 12th, 2013
Disasters come in all shapes and sizes and for businesses they can range from massive catastrophes to less severe but still damaging ones, such as dropping an external hard drive that contains vital backups. Regardless of the what type of problem you are dealing with, it pays to be prepared beforehand. One way to do this is to have a backup solution in place. Many experts recommend you use an offsite backup strategy, but the question we often get is, "why"?
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Pause for a minute and ask yourself if your business is prepared for a disaster. Chances are you have some plan for a large scale disaster like hurricanes, earthquakes and fire, but what about other disasters like hackers or human error? The truth is, many businesses with a disaster recovery plan often forget to ensure they cover all potential disasters.
Disasters come in all shapes and sizes, from losing a day's worth of data to floods or fires that can harm whole cities. Because they are so unpredictable in nature, it can often be hard to prepare your business for the inevitable. However, businesses aren't at a total loss if they have Business Continuity Plans that can help them through any disaster.
There are a couple of major scenarios we constantly come across. What I find fascinating is how incredibly different the scenarios turn out for the client.
February was an interesting month in terms of disasters. First there was the incident at the Super Bowl where half the stadium's lights abruptly went out leaving the game suspended and millions of viewers wondering what was going on. Then there was another Super Storm that hit the Eastern US, not to mention all the dramas going on around the world. These events continuously highlight the need for all businesses to have a Business Continuity Plan.
If the scale of natural disasters in 2012 is any indicator of what 2013 is to bring, we could see an increase in the severity of the weather. For businesses, this often means disruption of key services. We don't have to tell you that any disruption in service could have a drastic negative impact on profits. To mitigate potential losses, many companies are turning to Business Continuity (BC). Those just starting to develop their own plans are often at a loss due to the scale of the project. We're here to help make it a bit less daunting.
When it comes to disasters, people and businesses tend to think big, really big. Take for example Superstorm Sandy that hit the eastern US earlier in November. It can be pretty much guaranteed that a whole string of businesses will be preparing diligently for the next big storm. While this is important, smaller issues that happen at a higher frequency will be pushed to the side. One common issue revolves around passwords, and who manages them.
There are many reasons as to why you would spend time developing a Disaster Recovery Plan (DR) that fits your company. The biggest reason is because it will help during times of disaster, and could be the difference between your business failing or succeeding. Often when we develop such a plan, we only look at the immediate surroundings, which could make the strategy too narrow. When developing a plan of action, it might help to look outside your region and country to what other regions are doing in relation to DR.
