Disaster Recovery Houston: Why It's So Important For Small Business
Why business continuity and disaster recovery is so important for small and midsized business:
With the Hurricanes Ike, Rita and Katrina not too far in the rear-view mirror, it's easy to see why disaster recovery Houston is such a hot topic.
Business Continuity Planning is critical to small and midsized businesses simply because people typically don’t think or react as clearly in times of emergency. According to the Gulf Coast Back to Business Act of 2007, 43 percent of businesses that close following a natural disaster never reopen; an additional 29 percent close down permanently within two years.
With so much at stake - employee safety, client data security, and the very existence of the business in some catastrophic instances - it’s amazing to see how many people do not plan for disaster.
A quick success story of how an organization whose business continuity plan paid off:
A high-end diamond e-retailer client of ours conducts businesses throughout the world, so when Hurricanes Rita and Ike threatened in 2005 and 2008, potential clients would have simply moved onto the next diamond site if they were not available to service them. By implementing our Houston cloud services they enabled their employees to work remotely, and helped them create a plan that would send their key personnel to higher ground. As a result they worked through both hurricanes without any disruption – and didn’t lose any revenue during those time periods.
A quick story of a disaster and what could have been done to prevent it:
A New Orleans-based law firm we now work with was unprepared for the devastation that Hurricane Katrina wrought. As a result, much of the IT equipment was stuck in the building, inaccessible to the attorneys and staff who had fled to Houston, TX. Continuity planning with regard to the IT infrastructure alone would have saved the firm much time and effort. Having their data accessible in the cloud, for example, would have allowed the firm to access their data and applications from their temporary offices.
How an organization should go about business continuity planning for the first time:
Start by creating a small business continuity team – people who would be responsible for taking inventory of supplies, IT infrastructure needs, and communicating with clients, vendors, employees, and distribution channels. The team would then assess the risk of potential disasters (natural disasters, human disasters, and disgruntled employees, etc.) and set a budget and subsequent plan to mitigate the risk of the most threatening disasters. They key is to test, test, test the plan. Just like you would a fire drill. According to Boston Computing Network, Data Loss, 77% of companies that test their tape backups found backup failures.
Basic foundation of five business continuity plan “must-haves”:
- Departmental checklist of plan
- Alternate worksite
- Access to company data
- Communication with clients, vendors, employees, and distribution channels
- Testing and refresh of plan
The first step towards for a strong disaster recovery plan is a solid IT infrastructure. If you're not sure if your IT department is prepared for the next Hurricane, get a complimentary security assessment of your IT department now.
Image Source: Hurricanearchive.org