Intro to Disaster Recovery Planning
Every organization always has been and will always be threatened by system outages that can tank the entire business operations flow. When you take into account the fact that downtime costs companies between $10K to $5M per hour, it’s easy to see how even a system outage lasting a few hours can be financially devastating.
The good news is, there is something you can do to minimize that risk; it’s called business disaster recovery planning.
What Is Disaster Recovery Planning?
Disaster recovery planning is the method of formulating a document detailing the steps your organization will take to respond to and recover from an unplanned catastrophe like a power outage, natural disaster, cyber attack, and so on.
The problem is, many businesses create a detailed, effective plan and then leave it on a shelf, never to be looked at again. This is dangerous because businesses change, grow, realign, as does the world— just take a look at 2020. An effective disaster recovery plan needs to be regularly reviewed, updated, and tested.
Why Is Disaster Recovery Planning Important?
Disaster recovery planning is an imperative step for all businesses as a disaster can strike at any time. A single incident quickly knock out an organization’s entire corporate network or database, and the effects are drastic. Data shows that 93 percent of companies that experience data loss and downtime for 10 days or more will file for bankruptcy within one year. What’s more, 43 percent of companies without a disaster recovery plan will go out of business in the aftermath of major data loss.
Some of the most significant benefits of disaster recovery planning include:
- Reducing a company’s overall risk for losses caused by uncontrollable events.
- Alleviating owner, shareholder, and investor concerns. After a plan is developed and tested, it should be presented to company owners and investors to ease their concerns and know they won’t lose money and business should a disaster occur.
- Returning your organization to their typical day-to-day operations ASAP after a disaster occurs.
How to Make a Disaster Recovery Plan
To develop a robust disaster recovery plan for your organization, follow these steps:
- Compile an inventory of your servers, desktops, laptops, and wireless devices, software apps, and data. Develop a strategy to ensure all critical data is backed up.
- Identify critical software applications and data and what hardware is required to run them. Ensure that copies of the software are available for reinstallation on replacement equipment. Ensure that the plan makes it clear to prioritize hardware and software restoration.
- Test your plan periodically to ensure it works and make any updates and changes as needed.
How a Qualified IT Provider Can Help
In order to ensure that your disaster recovery plan is optimized and effective, work with an experienced IT provider. They offer the expertise needed to help you plan for any disaster and recover quickly after an incident occurs.
At TheCompuLab, we will work with you to ensure downtime is minimal, if present, in the event of a disaster, and we will get your business back up and running ASAP. Contact us today to secure your business’s future.
