Will Your Business Information Survive the Next Data Disaster?

A Business Continuity Planning Can Help

Business continuity planning can help your organization survive and thrive during and after a disaster by keeping your information protected and your data secure. A comprehensive IT business continuity plan will ensure that your data is accessible anytime, anywhere—regardless of the incident—and you’ll avoid costly post-disaster recovery expenses from an unplanned and expensive IT rebuild.

During a disaster—natural or otherwise—a company is faced with the potential for extensive downtime and loss of valuable information and data. Power outages, virus infections, floods, earthquakes, and even human error can cause data disasters, which can bring your company’s operations to a screeching halt and leave you waiting indefinitely without access to your network, important data, and applications. A comprehensive business continuity and disaster recovery plan can help you deal with those unforeseen events before, during, and after disaster strikes.

Ask yourself these questions to determine the level of disaster preparedness of your company’s IT infrastructure:

• How will we access our information during a disaster?
• Is my organization prepared for different levels of severity of potential disaster?
• How long can we continue to operate without access to information?
• How much information can we afford to lose?

A business continuity plan will address those issues to help you prepare for the next incident. An effective, comprehensive plan will involve:

1. Risk Assessment and Evaluation of Operational Needs

A reputable IT servicer that specializes in business continuity will want to know exactly how your organization suffers in the face of potential disaster so they can facilitate a quick and efficient return to normal, productive operations. Your IT professional will consider:

• Your most important operational functions and how long you can afford to be without them
• Whether your existing technology can keep your operations up-and-running during a disaster

2. Solution Design to Secure Your Business Finances, Operations, and Reputation During a Disaster

In order to develop your comprehensive business continuity plan, your IT servicer will determine whether your IT infrastructure, data backup, and cloud technology are sufficient to implement a strategy that builds both on-site and off-site virtualization into your organization’s IT model. An effective plan as to how to move operations between the two will be put into place.

• Instant virtualization implements replacement servers as soon as your local servers go down, dramatically reducing any related downtime to have your operations fully functional in as little as 6 seconds.
• Your local network will be synchronized to the Cloud to ensure you have access to your most recent data in the event of an incident.

3. Real-Time Implementation and Testing of Business Continuity Plan

A business continuity strategy is not complete without thorough testing of the processes involved in your disaster plan. Backups will be vetted and comprehensive fire drills will take place to evaluate the effectiveness of your plan, in real-time, as the events would occur during a real disaster.

4. Maintenance and Updates Throughout the Life of Your Service

An effective business continuity plan will involve regular maintenance and updates. Your IT servicer will revisit any solutions to evaluate whether your operation’s disaster strategy will benefit from revision; they will consider your organization’s current and projected growth, staff training needs, and new approaches to any IT issues you may have experienced throughout the process.

When you secure your organization with a business continuity plan, you ensure that your operation stays up and running during a disaster. By virtualizing your IT on-site and off-site, you can keep your organization’s information safe, secure, and accessible in the event of an incident.

Centerpoint IT is your trusted IT provider when it comes to keeping you connected and your business up and running during a disaster. Contact us at (404) 781-0200 or send us an email at info@centerpointit.com for more information.