4 Reasons Why A Disaster Recovery Plan Is Important For Businesses?

4 reasons why a disaster recovery plan is important for businesses

Unfortunately, many businesses either don’t have a plan written up, or the plan they’ve formulated is inadequate for their needs. For example, Nationwide’s Small Business Indicator survey showed that over two-thirds of small businesses lack a written plan, delaying their recovery from natural disasters. And of course, natural disasters aren’t the only kind that businesses face; there are also cyber attacks, equipment failure, loss of data, and employee errors or negligence.

disaster recovery plan

Why is Disaster Recovery Important for Businesses?

  • Financial costs. Disasters often lead to staggering costs for companies, sometimes causing them to go out of business. For instance, when it comes to data breaches (a too-frequent kind of disaster), the 2016 Ponemon Cost of Data Breach Study estimated an “average consolidated total cost” of $4 million per data breach.
  • Business reputation. Businesses without a strong disaster recovery plan are often left floundering after a disaster, whether it’s a cyber attack or a powerful storm. They may leave their customers’ information unprotected or fail to respond in a timely or effective way to customers’ concerns, questions, and needs.
  • Variety of threats. Because of the variety of potential disasters, and the way new threats may emerge, businesses need to make thorough preparations. They must assess the likelihood of different threats and prepare for each in the best possible way.
  • Unaffordable delays. The key to not only surviving a disaster, but continuing to thrive beyond it, is to put into play various disaster recovery measures. You can get your business up and running as quickly as possible afterwards and not have to suffer through prolonged downtime and delays.

To discuss the most effective disaster recovery strategies for your business, please contact us. We’ll help you come up with a comprehensive plan that counteracts the effects of different disasters.

Disaster Recovery Colocation

disaster recovery colocation
disaster recovery colocation

If a sudden disaster left your business inoperable, a good option would be disaster recovery colocation. This method involves the migration of your data center operations to a colocation service provider.

Some of the Benefits

Remote Location: Moving your network, data storage, servers and other equipment to a remote location allows you to reduce overhead and increase the efficiency of your operations.

Control: Your data center is in a different location, but you still have control over hardware, software and most of the communications.

Monitoring and Management: You get 24/7 monitoring and management of your most critical systems.

Scalability: You only pay for what you use and have access to as little or as much storage space you need.

Data Protection and Security: A colocation facility is hardened against forced entry, unauthorized access, fire and disasters.

Power Capacity: Colocation facilities give you access to a more robust power-per-square foot ratio than most private data centers.

Downtime Can Cost Your Company Money

It is not sufficient to just have data recovery files at your facility if your office is damaged or destroyed. With copies securely off-site, your business can access information anyway. A good data backup and recovery service can provide complete data disaster recovery and business continuity programs. Their dedicated and well-trained staff can protect your information from loss due to theft, system failures, hackers and disasters. They can work with you to find the best solution available. If you are dealing with a disaster now, try their Emergency IT Support which is a completely free service.

For more information please contact us.

Initiate Disaster Recovery Procedures Before Hurricane Season Begins

initiate disaster recovery procedures before hurricane season begins

Although the official timeline for tropical storms in the United States only lasts from June 1 through December 1, savvy businesses up and down the East Coast in the Gulf States know that business preparations in the event of a tropical storm or hurricane hitting your area are an ongoing process.

As 2015 heads towards summer, it’s a good idea to review your disaster recovery procedures for hurricane season before bad weather actually hits.

Just a few years ago, many businesses simply backed up their data to external hard drives prior to hurricane season and hoped for a short outage once a tropical storm hit. However, what happens if you forget to grab the backup drive before leaving the office? These days disaster recovery for your business means much more than preserving files on a separate hard drive. Information on your entire server can be at risk along with your entire telephone system if you are using VoIP services.

AE Technology Group can provide protection of all business records and data. Our backup solutions include secure cloud or data center storage that can replicate your IT working environment and get you up and running as soon as its safe to return to the premises following the storm. Getting your networks up and running as soon as possible following a natural disaster will minimize losses to your business and keep customers happy.

Cloud and other backup solutions that are suitable for disaster recovery are not just for large corporations.

Contact us today before a hurricane hits to learn how we put customized disaster recovery procedures in place that can ultimately save money.

Winter is Here: Time to Revisit Disaster Recovery

winter is here time to revisit disaster recovery

What happened in Buffalo is a reminder to all businesses to practice disaster recovery. Businesses in Upstate New York that had a disaster recovery plan will have had an easier time recovering from the colossal snow storm. It’s difficult to imagine the difficulties facing the businesses that didn’t have a proper strategy.

For those who missed it, Upstate New York was just hit by a record-setting snowstorm. Here’s a description of the aftermath in a recent New York Times article:

In Lancaster, Orchard Park and Cheektowaga, three of the area’s hardest-hit towns, cornices of ice and snow blanketing house roofs dipped down like frozen custard toppings, merging with snowbanks that towered eight feet from the ground.

Forget about businesses trying to contact clients. People were lucky if they were able to open their door to exit their house. There was so much snow that entire towns were stuck inside.

We’re approaching the heart of winter now, so storms like this could happen at any time. Businesses in the north should be used to this threat. And even if you’re located in the southern states, it seems like no one is safe any more after last year’s polar vortex.

The lesson here is that whether it’s snow or rain or a tornado, disasters happen. You can’t do anything to stop it. What you can do, however, is plan a disaster recovery strategy.

Disaster recovery strategies help businesses restore their operations after devastating storms. You should include several factors in your plan, such as:

  • a source of data backup, such as cloud computing
  • an internal communication plan
  • an external communication plan
  • employee training
  • an official company policy

All of these factors will prepare you and your employees for the worst. If you plan properly, then it doesn’t matter if your city is hit with three feet of snow. Your data will be backed up, your employees will know what to do, and your clients will know that your operations will be restored shortly.

To talk more about disaster recovery, or anything else, please contact us. Thanks.