For many small businesses, having a disaster recovery plan can mean the difference between going out of business following a disaster that destroys the IT system and circumnavigating the catastrophe with relative ease. According to technology research firm Gartner Inc., only 35 percent of small and medium-size businesses have a “comprehensive disaster recovery plan” in place. If your business is among them, now is the time to implement a disaster recovery plan.
Components of a Disaster Recovery Plan
A disaster recovery plan is not a one-size-fits-all IT solution. Rather, a provider of IT support for Minneapolis small businesses examines a business’ IT solutions and creates a plan to get the IT system up and running again shortly after the disaster, — sometimes in as little as 48 hours. With that said, there are at least five components of recovery plans that tend to apply in all situations.
Offsite Data Storage
A physical IT system is useless unless it contains the business data your business needs to sell products or render services. To ensure that your business’ proprietary data isn’t lost forever when the IT system is destroyed, it should be stored and managed at a remote location by a company that specializes in IT support for small business needs.
Alternate Business Location
A disaster that destroys the IT system is likely to make the environment where the system was located uninhabitable for a time. Consequently, it is important to work with a provider of IT support for small businesses to choose an alternative business location that can support the revamped IT system and helps to simplify the steps below.
Emergency Hardware Deployment
Emergency hardware is deployed the alternate business location and configured to have the characteristics and capacities of the original IT system. It is important to establish who is responsible for actually re-creating the IT system: your employees, or the provider of emergency hardware. Because some employees may be indisposed, the latter option is the safest one.
Migration of Business Data
After emergency hardware is set up at the alternate business location, you can migrate business data from the servers of the offsite data storage provider to the servers at the alternate business location. With a data migration plan in place, this process can be performed quite expeditiously, giving the customer access to its data in a matter of hours instead of a number of days.
Emergency Staff Deployment
The disaster that destroys the IT system may also injure those who work with the system. Consequently, it is important to plan for additional human resources to be deployed to the alternate business location. It may turn out that you don’t need temporary staff to perform business functions, but it is a good idea to have the option available in case you need it.
Contact Stratosphere Networks
If you operate a small business in Minneapolis and don’t have a comprehensive disaster recovery plan in place, the disaster recovery specialists at Stratosphere Networks will help you create one that addresses the IT needs of your business. For more information about disaster recovery planning, and to learn how we can help you develop a dynamic plan, call us today at (877) 950-1999, or fill out the contact form on our website. We look forward to assisting you!
