THE IMPORTANCE OF AN IT RECOVERY PLAN
IF THERE IS A DATA BREACH, YOU COULD LOSE A LOT OF WORK PROGRESS OR EVEN YOUR BACKUPS. THIS IS WHY IT’S CRUCIAL TO IMPLEMENT A WELL THOUGHT OUT IT RECOVERY PLAN.
Imagine the chaos of seeing your business go dark because you failed to install an IT recovery plan. The dread of knowing you’re losing sales and that your data is in the hands of criminals can be nerve-racking. Unfortunately, some companies only realize the importance of disaster recovery once they have been compromised.
More than half of all small businesses have experienced a data breach. These attacks range from small intrusions to full-on disruptions. Sometimes, disaster happens by employee fault or acts of God.
A secure recovery plan lets your business restart where it left off. This is, of course, given you have one to fall back on! Keep reading to learn why disaster recovery plans matter and how to implement them into your organization.
IT RECOVERY PLAN
Information technology disaster recovery planning involves the actions taken before a catastrophic event happens.
First, let’s take a closer look at the most common types of IT disasters.
TYPES OF IT DISASTERS
Disasters comes in many forms:
- Data breaches from hackers
- Disrupted work-space from malware
- Natural disasters (ex: flood)
- Human errors (ex: theft or accidents)
Data disasters scale with error and intent. Though, even small disruptions can setback business days on end. Larger events could force your company to close its doors.
PREPARING THE WORKFORCE
IT disasters aren’t a matter of if but when. Training your team is a crucial component of disaster recovery planning.
Simple but smart training should include:
- Reporting attempts or forgoing interactions
- Train employees on phishing emails
- How to work properly access the VPN to work safely from remote locations
PREPARING THE INFRASTRUCTURE
Hardware will experience failure from use and one-off events. Your software is vulnerable to these issues, but even more to malicious hackers or natural disasters.
Some ways to ensure system stability include:
- Doing regular on-site and off-site backups for quick data recovery
- Auditing IT practices, access, and use to detect faults
- Upgrading and replacing hardware/software when appropriate
- Using accounts with data access restrictions
Consider migrating your IT support and service off-site to a company that specializes in managed IT services. This ensures that the hardware and software are being monitored by larger teams of professionals. Another option is to run stress tests evaluating your IT team and their procedure when a disaster strikes.
BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER
Add one more item to the plan: customer/investor transparency.
Alert your customers and investors sooner than later. Include the actions your team is taking to fix issues and recover from a disaster. Then, own the mistakes and make amends with your audience to salvage retention.
Customers and investors deserve to know. Keeping them in-the-dark leaves them feeling slighted. The lack of transparency will make them less likely to continue doing business with you.
YOU’RE NOT ALONE, WE CAN HELP
Business owners, usually focus on their day-to-day operations. They are more focused on interacting with customers and making business-driven decisions. Information technology is important, but it comes second.
This is where we come in.
Our managed services and IT staff provide the help you need when you need it most. We can plan, manage, and set up your IT recovery plan with precision and skill.