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Building & Implementing A Disaster Recovery Plan

Jason McLaughlin

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Given the current uncertainty and panic over COVID-19, businesses are finding themselves forced to face the unforeseen. But just how prepared are they?

While many companies are now encouraging employees to work from home – as Google Ireland and other tech companies are doing – it seems those with the right kind of IT infrastructure are able to adapt more easily to the challenges ahead.

However, emergencies come in all forms – from physical damage to data hacks (as well as worldwide pandemics).

How would you get things back on track if your server, data, photos, files or apps were compromised – or worse, destroyed?

You’ll need a recovery plan, that’s for sure. Here are a few measures to consider.

Reviewing Requirements

One of the very first things we recommend companies do when putting a Disaster Recovery (DR) and Business Continuity (BC) plan in place is to consider their needs and requirements.

These vary from business to business – as every company’s different – but essentially it means understanding the way their network’s set up, which hardware and software are used, and where and how employees physically access company information.

It’s also important to list all devices – from mobiles to laptops and any other tech. Documenting everything in this way helps to define the quickest and most efficient way of getting a business back online after an incident.

Migration = Mitigation

A lot of smaller businesses still use on-prem solutions – which means all of their essential information is saved on local PCs and office-based servers.

In the wake of a pandemic like Coronavirus, this kind of setup makes it very difficult for employees to work remotely. And, if there was a flood or fire, pretty much everything the company uses in terms of hardware could be destroyed – with no way of repairing any of it.

As more and more businesses move to the cloud – to give them more storage, speed, and security – the chances of fully recovering everything after an incident are much greater as nothing’s stored onsite.

However, for many different reasons, some companies are reluctant to completely abandon on-premise hardware. Identifying solutions that will help them recover their backups – if they’re not in the cloud yet – is an important consideration too.

Minimise The Impact

Ultimately, if a business is offline, it’s losing money. Understanding how to minimise the impact is a crucial concern. This can include a step-by-step list of who to call, where to go, and how to get things running as quickly as possible.

This also extends to identifying where staff will work if there’s a disaster – be it from home, a hotel, or shared office space.

From an IT perspective, this means putting the right DR & BC plan in place. For example, those with on-premise servers can opt to create a daily cloud backup of their server – meaning that if something should go wrong, they’ll only lose a day’s worth of activity.

A less damaging alternative involves replicating an environment in a second location – which essentially means an entire on-prem server can be copied and stored; remotely right up to the moment that it goes wrong.

Obviously, prevention is always better than cure. At Ortus, our focus is on protecting the entire business and offering support and advice – as well as hands-on IT implementation. Few companies can run without their digital infrastructure.

Essentially, we see emergency planning as an insurance policy; against the many risks, businesses face on and offline.

If nothing else, our job is to help CEOs and CTOs sleep better at night.

Jason McLaughlin