Disaster Recovery Plan: What It Is and Why You Need It

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Disaster Recovery Plan: What It Is and Why You Need It

No one likes to think about worst-case scenarios.

Natural disasters, attacks, hacks, and even employee mistakes can have a major impact on your business’s fortunes. By taking basic precautions now you greatly increase your companies resiliency to disaster.

Use this guide to learn more about a disaster recovery plan and why it’s so important.

What is a Disaster Recovery Plan?

Disaster recovery planning allows a company to quickly resume normal operations after a disaster. A disaster recovery plan is a roadmap that allows this to happen.

This kind of plan will include an overall chain of command and basic training for key employees. Generally, steps will be taken to ensure that the damage or destruction of one portion of your data won’t affect the rest.

This starts with multiple backups of key data. If you run an e-commerce or app-based business you should absolutely have backup servers prepped and ready. Many companies offer services that routinely backup data and maintain available server space for your use.

Why is Disaster Recovery Planning Necessary?

Many organizations question the expense and time needed to prepare for disasters. If you’ve never experienced one it can be difficult to wrap your brain around the necessity of proper planning.

Natural disasters, cyber attacks, acts of terrorism, and major break-ins are just a few of the things that can seriously impact your business. Setting up a basic plan for how to protect and recover your data is the minimum required.

Think about what it would cost you if your digital presence was destroyed. If your operations are shut down you still have to cover all your fixed expenses and pay employees. The average cost for an hour of downtime for a medium-sized business can be substantial.

Even worse than actual loses can be the damage to your reputation. Customers are counting on your services to be available. If they suffer loses because of your downtime, they’re unlikely to listen to any explanation you can offer.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency estimates that as many as 40% of businesses never reopen their doors after a disaster. Having a plan in place makes it much more likely you will recover.

Where to Start

Making the decision to prepare is half the battle. Start by identifying the resources needed to run your company.

This will include:

  • Personnel
  • Computer hardware
  • Software
  • Essential data

Once you know what you will need you can begin making preparations. Assign key personnel specific roles in the event of different kinds of disaster. Back up all data, starting with data needed to run operations.

If you work with servers, try to harden your server storage with backup power supplies and strengthened structures. Where possible, split up your resources across a wide geographic area.

This makes it less likely a single disaster will cripple the entirety of your operations.

Be Proactive

The best plan in the world is useless if you create it after an incident. Start taking steps today to protect your business.

If you are ready to take the next step in your disaster planning, contact us here for a quote.

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