Disaster Recovery - Things Your Small Business Should Consider
Posted on Thu, Mar 22, 2012
Now I wasn’t a statistics major, but I think it fairly common knowledge that the likelihood of a business having a long, successful lifespan without a disaster striking is about, oh…0%. Disaster recovery should be taken very seriously. It is of utmost importance that business owners consider events that are foreseen, as well as the actions to be taken after a disaster has happened. Most business owners might not know the answer to the question “What will you do in the event there’s a 24-hour power outage tomorrow? How did you prepare your company for such event?” If your answer is, “Go home and finish last season of Grey’s Anatomy,” – game over.
If you own or run a business and are still unfamiliar with the basics of disaster recovery, then it’s high time for you to start educating yourself. Does your business need it? Definitely! Disaster recovery plans allow for business continuity so companies will stay up and running even in the midst of disasters like power failures, technology malfunctions and crashes, natural disasters, logistics and supply chain issues, and so much more. If your plan is comprehensive enough, it will do more than just help you recover it will also help you handle it like a champ!
A good disaster recovery plan therefore involves a wide range of processes including developing the plan, specifying inputs, outputs, support, testing, etc., all before, during and after a disaster. Two factors should that should also be considered when creating a disaster recovery plan – employee productivity and resources security. IT consultants often offer great insight into developing your unique solution. Other elements of a disaster recovery plan that should be taken into consideration are:
- The business’ most critical resources (including human resources), tasks, and functions
- Employees’ awareness of their roles and responsibilities during disasters
- Monitoring and maintenance activities
Again, it is essential to prepare for the unexpected. It is also important to update disaster recovery plans. As technology advances, a business’ endeavors and methods of accomplishing their goals advance as well. And thus, updates must adapt to changes in the business. For example, the trend nowadays is storing and processing business data online through cloud technology. A company who just moved to the cloud must update its disaster recovery plan to prepare for an unlikely cloud disaster such as security breach and crashes.
Small business adoption of a disaster recovery plan should be a no-brainer. There’s a large amount of businesses out there that fail to plan and thus, fail to recover. Don’t be one of them.