How to Create a Business Disaster Recovery Plan

Disaster recovery for business is something often overlooked by those who are yet to face a significant concern or situation where their company could be in for a tough period. If you were ever in doubt about the importance of a disaster recovery plan, recent events are an excellent example of how every industry can be impacted and desperately need solutions to ensure they can continue to do business. 

In this post, we’ll discuss disaster recovery for business and what you should include in your disaster recovery plan. 

Identify Your Company’s Critical Departments

Every industry is unique in regards to the service they provide and therefore, what aspects are most critical to their process — but they also have many similarities. During a time where there’s a lot of panic and confusion, customer service departments will prove to be essential as they will undoubtedly receive an abundance of phone calls concerning the status of services, campaigns, products, etc. 

When it comes to disaster recovery for business, it tends to be departments such as customer service, sales and accounting that are considered to be critical, as they are essential for client retention and onboarding new clients. With that said, if your company relies on a website to generate business, you’ll also be looking at your IT services as a vital component in your recovery plan. Every business and industry is different, so identifying which areas will serve you best during a disaster should always be one of the first things on your to-do list.

Data Protection and Backups

Modern businesses accumulate an abundance of crucial and sensitive data and rely on this to monitor progress, serve their customers’ needs and carry out everyday tasks. Therefore, this makes it vital for companies to protect their data and ensure backups are in place in the event of a breach or a disaster. This is where cloud computing has proved to be such a hugely valuable asset for businesses, as it provides you with an off-site backup of all of your data that’s easily accessible and very secure. 

Data backup and recovery are essential for any system — conventional or cloud-based. Unfortunately, there's no one-size-fits-all solution, and it's critical to ensure you have the best system in place to suit your needs. At ITRM, we can recommend the best solution for your business and the nature of the data you want to protect. We can also put a clear and straightforward disaster recovery plan in action, so your operations won't be comprised or suffer in the event of a severe setback.

Relocation Services

Although most businesses will relocate due to growth or moving to new office space, it’s also a very real possibility that the motivation may be in the wake of a disaster. While it’s definitely in the worst-case scenario category, you must always consider relocation when it comes to disaster recovery for business. To make sure your company is firing on all cylinders, it’s critical to have your IT services up and running as soon as possible. Failing to do so will have an immediate impact on your ability to attract new customers as well as serve existing ones — so it’s safe to say it’s a top priority. 

We offer a range of professionally planned relocation services, executed to suit the needs of your business — whether you’re moving out of choice or are doing so amid an emergency. Our specialists can provide in-house services (such as cabling), so you have everything you need to operate, as well as ongoing guidance and assistance, so your team has everything they need to be as productive as possible.

Prepare for Employees to Work-from-Home

The current Covid-19 pandemic is a perfect example of why disaster recovery for business is crucial for your company as well as your employees. In circumstances such as these, where the government has advised people to work from home, you need to have a plan to provide your team with the resources and means to carry out their duties from home. Again, this is where cloud computing is such a brilliant solution, as it allows yourself and your employees to remotely access data and documents whenever they need to. Not only this but cloud-based applications — such as Office 365 and Slack — are essential to maintain widespread productivity and efficient communication during challenging periods. 

Do you want to know more about disaster recovery for business? Our managed IT specialists can provide you with the services and knowledge needed to prepare you for any events that will impact your company. Get in touch today to discuss your requirements with our team.