A Business Continuity Plan Is Not Simply Arranging for Data Backup
September 7th, 2017 by admin
Having an established data backup is a great asset for your company. When things go wrong, it’s a relief to know that there is a backup of your critical files. It’s not just helpful, but essential – simply having a data backup will not fully protect you from disaster. Rather, data backups are only one part of a proper business continuity plan. With 93% of businesses closing permanently after a disaster, it’s vital to have a full-fledged plan that will fully restore your operations. When issues arise in IT, they vary widely in scale. For example, a loss of a single hard drive in a network area storage could be troublesome to a company. In a similar vein, the loss of multiple servers could totally devastate a business. Though one is objectively worse than the other, both require experience and effort to work through – and forethought to ensure you are prepared to do so. Having a business continuity plan means that you have more than just methods to recover from IT issues that arise. You have structured plans developed with the help of experts to target what you specifically need before, during and after an issue to keep your company running, regardless of the problem. There are three main steps to a creating a successful business continuity plan.Step 1: Create an Outline
Prior to any action, your business must undergo a critical analysis. This analysis will cover where your most critical services are, and what they need to be operational. It will also require an escalation list for important points of contact within your company. Stemming from the analysis, your business continuity plan will require a detailed outline. During the creation of the plan, you must keep in mind that the goal of the plan is to keep your business operations running after the event of a disaster. Additionally, the plan needs to prevent and even mitigate any negative consequences that occur as a result of a disaster.Step 2: Implement the Required Technologies
It’s unlikely that your organization already has everything it needs for the business continuity plan. More often than not, it will require you to purchase more physical machines. For example, if your plan includes the implementation of a physical backup of your company data, you will need to purchase a network storage device. These new technologies require constant technical tweaking and perfection. After all, every business operates differently, so no two configurations will be exactly alike.Step 3: Test the Plan
Naturally, you’ll want to test the plan for functionality. You should test your plan on a set schedule every 6 months, to check for operational capacity. Then you will want to update it as changes in your setup and personnel require. What’s the point of having a business continuity plan if you don’t know if or how well it works? With regular testing, you achieve peace of mind by knowing that if a disaster occurs, you’ll be able to bounce back quickly.Plan Ahead with IPRO
Building your business continuity plan isn’t as simple as having a data backup solution. It requires meticulous planning and thorough testing. Creating it alone can be stressful and tedious. Thankfully, we’re here to help. When you partner with us, you’ll be backed by a team of dedicated experts who have created many successful business continuity plans. We’ll work together to develop an exceptional plan that will have you back up and running in hours, not days. Don’t wait until disaster strikes. Contact us today to plan ahead for your organization’s future.Posted in: Blog, Data Backup