Every day we hear about outages or data breaches that lead to some company getting shut down. Simple mistakes can lead to your business downfall. The damage caused by these mistakes is too great. Most companies actually never from an IT disaster. Thus, it is important to have an IT DR plan. Your disaster recovery plan can protect your business from getting shut down.

Sometimes even an infinite IT budget won’t help you in implementing the best IT DR plan. Many companies think that an IT disaster is very unlikely to happen. However, this is a complete myth as a combination of human errors, hardware failures, and natural disasters have made every business vulnerable.

According to a report by NFIB, more than 30% of SMBs have been hit by natural disasters. Most of these companies never survive an IT disaster. A simple internet or power outage can shut down your entire operation. Only 6% of SMBs actually survive from a data loss. More than 94% of SMBs will close within 1-2 years.

Proactive companies are working on improving their DR plans. These companies will have a competitive advantage in case of a disaster. In this article, we are going to share some tips that will help you in making your DR plan successful.

Backups are important

You should have access to good backup tools. Many SMBs are still not investing their money into good backup solutions. Your DR plan is useless until you have a good backup solution. Data backups must be always fresh. Your data must be not corrupted. Sometimes companies forget to backup some data or applications.

In case of a natural disaster, you can’t access your local backups. Thus, it is important to ensure that you are storing your backups in a remote location. You can achieve this by using cloud-based backups.

Involve your staff members in DR planning

It is important to take advice from key staff members when you are creating your DR plan. You should involve your staff members in the planning process. This will ensure that your key staff members know about your DR plan. They can quickly focus on recovering your apps and data in case of a natural disaster. If your staff members are not involved during the planning phase, then they will be clueless during the actual disaster. It is important to make sure that they know about their responsibilities and roles.

Test your plan

It is important to properly test your DR plan. Your DR plan should be working in all the conditions. Also, you should test your plan at a random time. For example, you can test your plan at 4 am in the morning. This will ensure that you are ready for disasters as they can hit at any time.

You should regularly test your plans. This will ensure that your staff will learn about all the procedures and their roles. If you are testing your plan regularly, then you will learn about new things. You might have overlooked some hardware, dependencies, and applications while creating your original plan.

Make sure that your plan is documented

Your plan will fail if you have not described all the procedures. In drill tests, your plan might get executed successfully if there are some faults in it. Your staff members can use their own knowledge for making your plan successful. However, these staff members might be unavailable during a disaster.

Thus, some companies have an illusion that their plan is perfect. It is important to ensure that your entire DR plan is well documented.

Update your DR plans

Your recovery configurations and production configurations will change with time. Similarly, your applications, hardware, and staff members will change with time. Thus, your DR plan will soon become outdated. It is important to review your DR plan after some time interval. Make sure that your DR plan is updated and your company is ready for any disaster. You should check your DR plan at least twice a year.

Protect your business from power outages

There are many side effects of natural disasters. The most common effect of natural disasters is a power blackout. It will last longer when compared to the original event. Thus, you should ensure that you can generate enough power. You need electricity for running your systems and applications. If your systems are down, then you can’t provide services to your clients. Make sure that you can fuel your systems for weeks. This will ensure that you can survive the after-effects of natural disasters.

Communication

Most DR plans will rely on staff members that are working from remote locations. You might be working with an MSP partner. Thus, you need access to remote resources for starting your DR plan.

However, sometimes all the mobile phone systems and lines will be down during a disaster. Your plan should contain a specific section for communication. Many companies are giving satellite phones to their important staff members. You can also use social media for communicating with your staff members.

Make sure that your DR plan is always available

Your staff members will need your DR plan for executing it. Thus, you should ensure that the copies of your DR plan are available. You should store your DR plan in multiple locations. This will help you in recovering your plan in case of a disaster. You should ensure that your DR plan will be immediately available to your staff members. This will help you in minimizing the damage caused by the disaster.

Conclusion

Every business is vulnerable to IT disasters. However, you can minimize the damage by creating a good DR plan. Your DR plan will help you in maintaining business continuity. Most SMBs fail because they are not ready for IT disaster. You should consider working with an experienced MSP. Experienced MSPs like Bleuwire can help you in creating a perfect DR plan. They will help you in finding the best online backup solution for your business. Also, they will help you in recovering your data and applications during a disaster. If you need more information regarding disaster recovery, then you can contact Bleuwire.

Contact us today to learn about Bleuwire™ services and solutions in how we can help your business.