Business continuity is one of those things that can easily be overlooked as most businesses do whatever they can to focus on the job at hand. Unfortunately for the unprepared business, there are a lot of situations that can happen that can interrupt its ability to function optimally. Having continuity strategies in place can save organizations a lot of time and money as they are able to get back up and running effectively quicker.
All this means is that as circumstances change, these plans have to change with them. What if you try to use a continuity plan that doesn’t share the reality that your business conducts business in? You will be scurrying around trying to come up with plans on the fly that should have been in place from the beginning. Your margin for error will be smaller, and some businesses won’t be able to recover.
There are True Disasters
Take, for instance, the omnipresent threat of natural disasters. Regardless of where your business is located, your business is always at the mercy of nature. Areas that experience harsh winters should be wary of heavy snow and ice accumulation, which can topple power lines and lead to power surges. Some locations are at great risk of tornadoes, which can, quite literally, throw all of your profits into the air. Fires, electrical storms, and other more common natural disasters can all lead to data loss, and there’s often nothing you can do to stop it.
You Could Get Hacked
Add in the constant threat of hackers, who are unpredictable and difficult to plan for, and you could have a full-blown data loss disaster on your hands when you least expect it. Unlike a natural disaster, which has telltale signs of impending doom, hackers will brutally assault your business with whatever means they deem necessary to steal or destroy your data. If they succeed, your budget could break under heavy compliance fines associated with sensitive or personal credentials, and your company’s reputation could suffer.
Someone Can Just Mess Up
Not to mention that your organization could fall to simple user error. If someone inexperienced or untrained on how to properly handle your data messes with settings or files that they shouldn’t be messing with, you could lose track of files, or even risk them to online attacks. This is one reason why it’s always important to both educate your employees on best practices, and to use a powerful backup and disaster recovery solution.
What North Central Technologies suggests implementing is called a backup and disaster recovery (BDR) device, which is designed to minimize downtime when faced with a crippling disaster. BDR is capable of taking multiple backups per day, which can then be stored and recovered from a secure, off-site data center, and the cloud. The BDR can minimize downtime further by temporarily taking the place of your downed server. This provides an opportunity to carefully choose an adequate replacement.
This is the reason your business needs to prepare with not just a comprehensive business continuity plan, but also proactive IT solutions designed to eliminate downtime and appropriately manage the risk of doing business online. This includes equipping your business with both a quality backup and disaster recovery solution, arming yourself with powerful security measures that can detect and eliminate potential threats, as well as implementing preventative maintenance and management.
It might sound overwhelming, but we can provide all of these services for you, plus many others. Our professional technicians are exceptionally knowledgeable about the technology needs of small and medium-sized businesses, as well as the pain points that they suffer from. For more information about business continuity and our BDR solution, give us a call today at 978-798-6805.
