Every business should have an IT disaster recovery plan, regardless of its size. Yet the unfortunate truth is that plenty of organizations have no such plan. Imagine a situation in which a hacker infects your network with ransomware and threatens to delete your files unless you pony up thousands of dollars worth of bitcoin currency. Such a scenario could cripple your business. A comprehensive IT disaster recovery plan serves to mitigate the damage from such digital attacks as well as employee errors and even tangible, real-world crises.
Why a Disaster Recovery Plan is So Important
Think of all the potential threats to your company’s network, computers and sensitive information. All sorts of different problems and overt attacks threaten the integrity of your company’s systems and data. These threats can even hinder your organization’s ability to perform daily operations. Business owners and managers must implement a disaster recovery plan to limit the damage inflicted by everything from cyber attacks to floods, break-ins and beyond. This plan establishes protocols that instruct employees how to act, the order in which these actions should be performed and generally how to proceed after the threat has manifested. This way, there is no uncertainty as to what should be done in the immediate aftermath of the disaster and beyond. In the end, a well-crafted disaster recovery plan has the potential to preserve a business’s integrity, protect critical data and maintain relationships with clients.
What Happens When a Disaster Recovery Plan is not in Place
Imagine an instance in which an earthquake or flood strikes. A business that lacks a disaster recovery plan will be in quite the bind if such a threat unfolds. Employees won’t be sure as to what actions should be prioritized. Data will be left unprotected and possibly irretrievable. Expensive computer hardware will be exposed to nature’s wrath. The lack of planning really does have the potential to close a business’s doors for good. Some hardware and data simply cannot be replaced. There should be detailed protocols in place that instruct employees how to perform data backup and properly respond during a disaster scenario.
For example, if there is a threat of flooding for your business’s location, data should have already been backed up and valuable servers, computers and other essential equipment should be relocated to a safe space at a higher elevation. Ideally, your company’s data will also be backed up to a location outside of your office. This way, if a disaster strikes your specific location, sensitive client/in-house data will still be accessible as it is stored in multiple secure locations.
Preserve Your Clients, Assets and Reputation With a Disaster Recovery Plan
Don’t wait for a catastrophic scenario to unfold to create and implement a well-reasoned disaster recovery plan. By that point, it might be too late. A failure to prepare for the worst possible scenario
could put you out of business before you have the chance to attempt to remedy the mistake. Implement a custom-tailored disaster recovery plan now before disaster strikes. It just might preserve your client relationships, prevent costly downtime, safeguard your data and ultimately save your business.