Every business needs to have a Disaster Recovery plan in place to ensure that operations and data can continue to function in the event of a major disruption. A Disaster Recovery plan not only helps protect a business from the potential losses associated with a disaster, such as natural disasters or cyber-attacks, but also helps protect its customers, employees and stakeholders. IT Disaster Recovery planning helps businesses anticipate and prepare for potential disruptions, so they can recover quickly and minimize the impact on their operations. Additionally, having a Disaster Recovery plan in place can help businesses reduce legal liability and maintain compliance with regulations. Investing in a comprehensive Disaster Recovery plan is essential, and is something your customers will see as a huge business positive.
At Quickconnect we noticed that some people object to having a Managed IT Disaster Recovery plan because of their misunderstanding of what exactly constitutes a disaster. Some think that a disaster is a large catastrophic event such as an earthquake or an explosion. However there are many smaller events that can happen to a business which can have a disastrous impact. Consider things such as pipes bursting in the winter, unpredictable blackouts, accidental phone or high speed internet lines getting cut due to local construction, lightning damage, a key employee becoming unavailable who has access to operate systems, and so forth can all have a disastrous impact. Let’s keep in mind that New Jersey experiences all four seasons so just about anything goes!
Nuts & Bolts of Any New Jersey Business Managed IT Disaster Recovery Plan…
We hope the following plan outline will help you start thinking about a Managed IT Disaster Recovery plan:
- Analyze Risks: Figure out what could go wrong with IT systems and sort them by the effect they’d have on operations.
- It’s vital to create a business contingency plan – pinpoint the processes and systems that are essential for your operations and make plans for an alternate system/process in case of a disaster, so you can keep your business running.
- Putting together an IT Disaster Recovery Team is key – you’ll need to delegate different roles & responsibilities for the recovery process to certain people or groups.
- Make sure you back up your data frequently, and store it somewhere safe & offsite. This will ensure that all the vital info is protected.
- Make sure to run tests on your Disaster Recovery Plan and update regularly, so that it remains up-to-date and effective.
- Develop a communication plan for staying in touch with employees, customers and stakeholders when faced with a disaster. This will ensure everyone stays informed and up-to-date.
- Invest in Technology: Invest in technology such as virtualization, cloud computing, and backup systems to increase resilience and reduce downtime.
- Keep Training: It’s essential to keep giving regular training to your DR team and all staff about the recovery plan and process.
- Form alliances: Reach out to major vendors, partners and other stakeholders to make sure that business is still running even when disaster strikes.
Keep your IT disaster recovery plan up to date so it’s effective and applicable no matter what the business situation is. Regularly review and tweak it as needed.
If you are a New Jersey or New York business and need help with the above then please give us a call. We have many Managed IT options that offer remote monitoring, remote backups and much more to make sure that your business will be fully operational should anything disastrous happen.