Your Must-Have Checklist for Complete Disaster Recovery Planning
Your information is too valuable to leave unprotected. Even if you think you already have a solid security system in place, take the extra step. Every business needs to go through disaster recovery planning. The majority of companies that are hacked shut their doors within a year of the incident. In 2016, Microsoft also found that the average cost of a data breach grew from $3.8 million to $4 million. Don’t take the risk of assuming this will never happen to you. Even the smallest businesses are targets to hackers.
To take a proactive approach and efficiently disaster plan, follow these steps:
Talk to your MSP and educate yourself on the types of disasters that could hit
The more educated you are on what could harm you, the better you can protect yourself/recover from it. It could be natural disasters such as floods, hurricanes, or earthquakes. Or, it could be basic human errors such as spilling coffee on a monitor.
You could also get hacked or catch a virus. There are many ways to prepare for this. First, speak with your managed service provider (MSP). We would be happy to assist you here at DMS Technology. We’ll educate you on security systems we can implement for you. We will also discuss what would happen in the aftermath of a disaster and how we would be able to help you. The better you understand the disaster, the better we can both protect your infrastructure.
Take inventory, and implement off-site data backups
While all your technology is healthy and running, take inventory in case you ever need to replace a part. Keeping a running inventory will also make it easier to see what you do and don’t have if you decide to make any changes. While you are doing this, you should also implement off-site data backups. A great option for this would be the cloud, which an MSP will also gladly help you set up. With this, if your main technology is hit, you don’t have to worry because your info is safely backed-up elsewhere.
Formulate a business continuity plan
Nothing halts a business’s productivity more than lost time. That’s why the next step in this checklist for disaster recovery planning is formulating a business continuity plan. For example, when Hurricane Katrina or Hurricane Sandy hit, the businesses that were able to maintain operations through alternate devices were the ones that continued to succeed. When you contact us, we will offer you various solutions to this difficulty. These solutions will allow you to instantly access your data elsewhere to be able to keep going. We will always be there for you.
Test it out!
This step may not seem that important, but trust us, it is. You need to test out your plan before any disaster hits to make sure all the steps work. Firstly, this will show you how quickly it will take to retrieve information and get everything back up and running. Secondly, you can fix any faults and perfect the plan for when push comes to shove. You don’t want to discover any mistakes in the midst of a crisis. DMS will implement a plan and test it frequently to make sure it works when you need it to.
Get in touch with an MSP today
Protect your business and give us a call so we can get started on that plan. We will take care of you from start to finish, assessing and determining what your company needs to stay protected. Your information is too valuable to be without a disaster recovery plan.