What is Disaster Recovery?
We often get the question — “What is disaster recovery“? — and we are surprised how many companies could do a better job of answering it for their workforce. That is, they may have a plan in place but not share it with their employees, or their plan may be outdated and not include the current mix of online and offline systems that their organization operates on a daily basis.
A Little Background
We live in an Internet-of-Things (IOT) world. Consumers demand the best from their favorite brands. Sharon Goldman’s recent article on CIO.com explained it best: “For retailers, technology, strategy and customer experience are now intertwined. Everything revolves around keeping up with consumer expectations for a seamless experience both online and offline, across channels and devices.” While companies may have a partnership with an external IT firm, they are hard-pressed to provide this level of service following a disaster.
When Disaster Strikes
So, what is disaster recovery? Disaster recovery refers to what a company will do, especially with its information systems, in the aftermath of an adverse event. Any time that an unexpected event (i.e. a data security breach or a natural disaster) occurs and interrupts the normal operations of a business, it could lose money. The damage could occur in a few minutes or a few hours. Some companies have died a quick death after a catastrophic event. When disaster strikes, the need to stop the bleeding becomes urgent. After a disaster, employees get stressed out and find it hard to choose the best decisions, often with fewer resources. IT is where there can be extensive damage. Without a backup system in place, it can take days for your organization to restore normal operations. Meanwhile, customers will start to feel frustrated, and some of them will go to a competitor and never return to your company.
Working with Managed IT Services
When you work with managed IT services, an external provider ensures that backups exist for all of your data systems. This could mean that all of the data on your servers get backed up each night on hard disk drives. The IT people know what steps to take to get every business system and every software application back online in your organization. What’s crucial for IT staff and management is understanding the specifics of your IT infrastructure, such as where IT systems are located, what impacts that any system failures might have on customers and employees, and what plans should be followed to ensure full restoration of all systems. Fortunately, if most or all IT systems reside in the cloud, your off-site IT people can start their jobs fixing problems long before your work sites undergo disaster mitigation.
Why You Want Disaster Recovery
To compete in the IoT world, an organization must plan for disaster recovery. Customers expect to have constant access to your website, your mobile apps, and your customer service hotline. They don’t want to wait for answers to their questions or to finalize their transactions. If you operate ’round-the-clock services, having a business continuity plan is even more crucial. Your IT systems are especially vulnerable to failure in the event of a disaster, and having a plan for recovery gives employees enough directions to begin recovery efforts. They must know what to do in the aftermath of the event. Planning in advance helps your organization minimize temporary and long-term effects on customers.
Prevention Helps
It’s easy to read this post and feel discouraged that a data breach, an earthquake, a fire, or a hurricane could cripple your company. While a catastrophe could happen, remember this is why you carry property damage insurance. You can also purchase special insurance for disaster recovery and specifically for losses to IT systems. You can also build a long-term partnership with a managed IT services provider and ensure all of your data gets backed up each day.
When you partner with CompuData, your company is not alone if disaster strikes. For more details on how we will plan for disaster recovery and help your company respond to adverse events, please contact us today.