Blogs
June 27, 2019
Disaster Recovery & Business Continuity: 8 Steps Every Midsize Business Needs to Follow
Roughly 40-60% of midsize businesses never reopen after a disaster. But, with the right disaster recovery and business continuity plan in place, the damage can be minimized. In this post, we’ll examine the common threats businesses face and how to create an effective disaster recovery plan to thwart them.Roughly 40-60% of midsize businesses never reopen after a disaster. But, with the right disaster recovery and business continuity plan in place, the damage can be minimized. In this post, we’ll examine the common threats businesses face and how to create an effective disaster recovery plan to thwart them.
Disaster recovery plans used to be a luxury only large businesses could afford. In an era of growing cybersecurity concerns and increasingly common natural disasters, an effective disaster recovery plan is critical to the survival of every midsized business.
Why Midsize Businesses Need to Prepare for Disasters
90% of businesses that experience a disaster and don’t resume operations within 5 days go out of business within the first year. As a result, it’s critical businesses develop and maintain a disaster recovery protocol that makes it possible – and easy – to get back up and running within minutes instead of days or weeks.
An effective recovery plan is always on standby, ready to go into effect. It can be updated incrementally, without time-intensive system revisions, ensuring it scales with business growth. It’s cost-efficient and well-suited to the organization’s needs and what it can support. Therefore, it can help minimize revenue loss and get operations up and running as soon as possible.
But how do you build an effective disaster recovery plan? Here are 8 steps that will help you get started.
8 Steps for Disaster Recovery
#1 Set Recovery Goals
Before writing a recovery plan, you must assess the potential threats your facilities might face and their impact on operations.
Large, region-devastating disasters, like tornados, floods and hurricanes, make the headlines, but they aren’t the only threats to your operation. Hardware failure, hacking, ransomware, human error and power outages are constant, and arguably more damaging, threats which can compromise unprotected data. These disasters corrupt computer environments, destroy hardware, interrupt connections to service providers and destroy data.
After assessing potential threats and their probability, create your RTO (Recovery Time Objective), an estimated timeline for how long it will take to recover. This should be dictated by how quickly you need things to be back up and running. In each scenario, what assets and services are likely to be lost? Which are the most important to restore first? If an expedited recovery is what you need, it can often require more resources to speed up.
#2 Select A Data Backup Strategy
After setting goals for recovery, you must now select the right data backup strategy. Data backup is critical to any disaster recovery plan. Without the right preparations, a single storm or cyberattack can wipe out all of the data a business needs to function. When selecting a backup strategy, there are two keys to look for: redundancy and security.
Redundancy means backing up your data in more than one way and location. Properly managing the location and type of backup ensures that no single point of failure or disaster can debilitate your business.
Security means that your data is protected from disasters and other threats, remaining accessible to your organization and inaccessible to everyone else.
There are two different ways of conducting a data backup: physical and cloud.
Physical
Physical drives are simple to use and easy to scale. But they’re just as vulnerable to disaster as the data they’re backing up. It’s also difficult to separate the backup drive and original source while maintaining backup frequency. This is because the two devices need to be physically next to each other to backup, but also stored on separate locations for security. When disaster strikes, a physical hard drive backup on the same site as the original isn’t much of a backup.
For midsize operations, allocating an additional facility – just for storing drives – often isn’t feasible. For larger organizations, it becomes difficult to scale, as large quantities of data will require mountains of hard drives.
Cloud
Cloud backups upload and store data in the cloud, offsite and disconnected from your network. This transfers the burden of redundancy and security to an external location. Cloud backups are an extremely cost-effective solution. They also make it easy to conduct automatic backups, which places less demand on operating personnel to manually back up mountains of data every week.
Cloud backups also are much easier to scale than physical storage. Instead of purchasing and maintaining new drive assets, the SaaS nature of cloud backups makes changing storage amounts as easy as upgrading or downgrading a subscription plan.
#3 Implement Data Backup
After selecting your backup method, you must implement it. Here are the best options depending on which path you choose.
Physical
For physical storage, one way of creating redundancy is by utilizing dual data centers that run with data mirrored and synchronized. This eliminates downtime, enables a quick recovery and gives organizations total control over the data. But it’s also very expensive and resource intensive – so it’s usually only viable for large companies.
An alternative to this is internal recovery. This involves leveraging more than one facility to store data from all facilities at an offsite location. In the event of a disaster, the information can be sent to other facilities to restore the functions and services of the downed location. This has similar benefits and challenges as mirroring and synchronization, providing a high degree of control while requiring more resources to function.
Cloud
For cloud backups, there are two different approaches. The first is to store backups on a specialized appliance onsite and then securely transmit data to the vendor data center. During transmission, data is deduplicated, condensing and removing duplicate files.
The second method is to send the backups directly from your facilities to the vendor data center, during which data is deduplicated.
The main difference between these two options is the presence of an onsite device. It adds another layer of redundancy to the system. However, for some users, this may be unnecessary.
#4 Establish Data Backup Frequency
After implementing, the next step is to establish a backup frequency and RPO (Recovery Point Objective), the time that might pass during a disruption before the data loss exceeds a business’ tolerance. This could be hourly, daily, weekly or continuous. But be wary – the longer the period of time between backups, the more vulnerable you are to critical data loss. Because of this, data should be backed up as frequently as needed to ensure any data loss is manageable.
Whichever approach and frequency you choose, it is critical to know where your backups are being stored. If you decide to back up your data on the cloud through a vendor, look into where their facilities are and how they store your information. This will ensure that you’re not partnering with a company that operates with inadequate facilities for redundancy or with facilities in locations that are vulnerable to the same natural disasters you’re trying to protect yourself against.
#5 Identify Roles & Responsibilities
An effective recovery plan clearly specifies who is accountable for each task. Every accountability, no matter how small, needs to be assigned an executor and given a timeline.
Larger companies often have dedicated recovery staff to handle these responsibilities in house. For midsize companies, partnering with a managed service provider is the most efficient option from a cost and resource point of view.
#6 Define the Communication Strategy
A disaster recovery plan only works if there is a protocol for reliable communication. Thus, a plan that relies on using company landlines to contact key personnel and vendors will fail when phone lines fail. A diversified communication strategy, one that utilizes a combination of company phones, mobile devices, email, and online messaging, is the most reliable. Similarly, an unclear plan that leaves personnel unsure of who to contact will lead to bottlenecks and prolonged outages.
A comprehensive contact list is a great way of accomplishing this. This could include key personnel, vendors, suppliers, property owners, utilities service providers and technical support. Like the recovery plan, the contact list should be accessible to all stakeholders during a facilities failure. This helps ensure that the right people are in place to execute the recovery plan.
#7 Create an Equipment Inventory
Another element of an effective recovery plan is to create a comprehensive inventory of hardware, software, and data that your business uses. Create a hierarchy of what information and assets are most critical. This ensures that all essential data is backed up, and anything not backed up is expendable.
Each entry for inventory should include critical asset information such as make, model, function, ownership and cost. Setting a frequency for how often the inventory list will be audited helps keep a relevant and accurate guide of what assets are in play.
For software and applications, have copies and additional licenses so that they can be easily reinstalled on new equipment and utilized by staff working remotely during the recovery process.
#8 Devise an Update Schedule
The final step for creating a recovery and business continuity plan is to devise a protocol for keeping it up to date. Once all data has been backed up, conduct frequent test runs to make sure systems are functional.
With a plan and resources in place, as long as you continue to periodically maintain and upgrade the system, it will be able to protect your business for the foreseeable future.
Conclusion
Developing and implementing a disaster recovery plan is crucial to minimizing downtime and shielding your business from data loss. Hopefully, the steps outlined above will help you get a jumpstart on building a better business continuity plan for your business.
Need help preparing for the unexpected? Magna5 can help. Contact us today for a disaster recovery assessment and consultation.
Mike Penn
Mike Penn joined Magna5 as Senior Content Developer. His role is to bring to life stories that inspire or inject clarity in how managed services and emerging trends can be applied to help organizations operate better and more efficiently.
recent blog posts
June 27, 2019
Disaster Recovery & Business Continuity: 8 Steps Every Midsize Business Needs to Follow
Roughly 40-60% of midsize businesses never reopen after a disaster. But, with the right disaster recovery and business continuity plan in place, the damage can be minimized. In this post, we’ll examine the common threats businesses face and how to create an effective disaster recovery plan to thwart them.Roughly 40-60% of midsize businesses never reopen after a disaster. But, with the right disaster recovery and business continuity plan in place, the damage can be minimized. In this post, we’ll examine the common threats businesses face and how to create an effective disaster recovery plan to thwart them.
Disaster recovery plans used to be a luxury only large businesses could afford. In an era of growing cybersecurity concerns and increasingly common natural disasters, an effective disaster recovery plan is critical to the survival of every midsized business.
Why Midsize Businesses Need to Prepare for Disasters
90% of businesses that experience a disaster and don’t resume operations within 5 days go out of business within the first year. As a result, it’s critical businesses develop and maintain a disaster recovery protocol that makes it possible – and easy – to get back up and running within minutes instead of days or weeks.
An effective recovery plan is always on standby, ready to go into effect. It can be updated incrementally, without time-intensive system revisions, ensuring it scales with business growth. It’s cost-efficient and well-suited to the organization’s needs and what it can support. Therefore, it can help minimize revenue loss and get operations up and running as soon as possible.
But how do you build an effective disaster recovery plan? Here are 8 steps that will help you get started.
8 Steps for Disaster Recovery
#1 Set Recovery Goals
Before writing a recovery plan, you must assess the potential threats your facilities might face and their impact on operations.
Large, region-devastating disasters, like tornados, floods and hurricanes, make the headlines, but they aren’t the only threats to your operation. Hardware failure, hacking, ransomware, human error and power outages are constant, and arguably more damaging, threats which can compromise unprotected data. These disasters corrupt computer environments, destroy hardware, interrupt connections to service providers and destroy data.
After assessing potential threats and their probability, create your RTO (Recovery Time Objective), an estimated timeline for how long it will take to recover. This should be dictated by how quickly you need things to be back up and running. In each scenario, what assets and services are likely to be lost? Which are the most important to restore first? If an expedited recovery is what you need, it can often require more resources to speed up.
#2 Select A Data Backup Strategy
After setting goals for recovery, you must now select the right data backup strategy. Data backup is critical to any disaster recovery plan. Without the right preparations, a single storm or cyberattack can wipe out all of the data a business needs to function. When selecting a backup strategy, there are two keys to look for: redundancy and security.
Redundancy means backing up your data in more than one way and location. Properly managing the location and type of backup ensures that no single point of failure or disaster can debilitate your business.
Security means that your data is protected from disasters and other threats, remaining accessible to your organization and inaccessible to everyone else.
There are two different ways of conducting a data backup: physical and cloud.
Physical
Physical drives are simple to use and easy to scale. But they’re just as vulnerable to disaster as the data they’re backing up. It’s also difficult to separate the backup drive and original source while maintaining backup frequency. This is because the two devices need to be physically next to each other to backup, but also stored on separate locations for security. When disaster strikes, a physical hard drive backup on the same site as the original isn’t much of a backup.
For midsize operations, allocating an additional facility – just for storing drives – often isn’t feasible. For larger organizations, it becomes difficult to scale, as large quantities of data will require mountains of hard drives.
Cloud
Cloud backups upload and store data in the cloud, offsite and disconnected from your network. This transfers the burden of redundancy and security to an external location. Cloud backups are an extremely cost-effective solution. They also make it easy to conduct automatic backups, which places less demand on operating personnel to manually back up mountains of data every week.
Cloud backups also are much easier to scale than physical storage. Instead of purchasing and maintaining new drive assets, the SaaS nature of cloud backups makes changing storage amounts as easy as upgrading or downgrading a subscription plan.
#3 Implement Data Backup
After selecting your backup method, you must implement it. Here are the best options depending on which path you choose.
Physical
For physical storage, one way of creating redundancy is by utilizing dual data centers that run with data mirrored and synchronized. This eliminates downtime, enables a quick recovery and gives organizations total control over the data. But it’s also very expensive and resource intensive – so it’s usually only viable for large companies.
An alternative to this is internal recovery. This involves leveraging more than one facility to store data from all facilities at an offsite location. In the event of a disaster, the information can be sent to other facilities to restore the functions and services of the downed location. This has similar benefits and challenges as mirroring and synchronization, providing a high degree of control while requiring more resources to function.
Cloud
For cloud backups, there are two different approaches. The first is to store backups on a specialized appliance onsite and then securely transmit data to the vendor data center. During transmission, data is deduplicated, condensing and removing duplicate files.
The second method is to send the backups directly from your facilities to the vendor data center, during which data is deduplicated.
The main difference between these two options is the presence of an onsite device. It adds another layer of redundancy to the system. However, for some users, this may be unnecessary.
#4 Establish Data Backup Frequency
After implementing, the next step is to establish a backup frequency and RPO (Recovery Point Objective), the time that might pass during a disruption before the data loss exceeds a business’ tolerance. This could be hourly, daily, weekly or continuous. But be wary – the longer the period of time between backups, the more vulnerable you are to critical data loss. Because of this, data should be backed up as frequently as needed to ensure any data loss is manageable.
Whichever approach and frequency you choose, it is critical to know where your backups are being stored. If you decide to back up your data on the cloud through a vendor, look into where their facilities are and how they store your information. This will ensure that you’re not partnering with a company that operates with inadequate facilities for redundancy or with facilities in locations that are vulnerable to the same natural disasters you’re trying to protect yourself against.
#5 Identify Roles & Responsibilities
An effective recovery plan clearly specifies who is accountable for each task. Every accountability, no matter how small, needs to be assigned an executor and given a timeline.
Larger companies often have dedicated recovery staff to handle these responsibilities in house. For midsize companies, partnering with a managed service provider is the most efficient option from a cost and resource point of view.
#6 Define the Communication Strategy
A disaster recovery plan only works if there is a protocol for reliable communication. Thus, a plan that relies on using company landlines to contact key personnel and vendors will fail when phone lines fail. A diversified communication strategy, one that utilizes a combination of company phones, mobile devices, email, and online messaging, is the most reliable. Similarly, an unclear plan that leaves personnel unsure of who to contact will lead to bottlenecks and prolonged outages.
A comprehensive contact list is a great way of accomplishing this. This could include key personnel, vendors, suppliers, property owners, utilities service providers and technical support. Like the recovery plan, the contact list should be accessible to all stakeholders during a facilities failure. This helps ensure that the right people are in place to execute the recovery plan.
#7 Create an Equipment Inventory
Another element of an effective recovery plan is to create a comprehensive inventory of hardware, software, and data that your business uses. Create a hierarchy of what information and assets are most critical. This ensures that all essential data is backed up, and anything not backed up is expendable.
Each entry for inventory should include critical asset information such as make, model, function, ownership and cost. Setting a frequency for how often the inventory list will be audited helps keep a relevant and accurate guide of what assets are in play.
For software and applications, have copies and additional licenses so that they can be easily reinstalled on new equipment and utilized by staff working remotely during the recovery process.
#8 Devise an Update Schedule
The final step for creating a recovery and business continuity plan is to devise a protocol for keeping it up to date. Once all data has been backed up, conduct frequent test runs to make sure systems are functional.
With a plan and resources in place, as long as you continue to periodically maintain and upgrade the system, it will be able to protect your business for the foreseeable future.
Conclusion
Developing and implementing a disaster recovery plan is crucial to minimizing downtime and shielding your business from data loss. Hopefully, the steps outlined above will help you get a jumpstart on building a better business continuity plan for your business.
Need help preparing for the unexpected? Magna5 can help. Contact us today for a disaster recovery assessment and consultation.
Mike Penn
Mike Penn joined Magna5 as Senior Content Developer. His role is to bring to life stories that inspire or inject clarity in how managed services and emerging trends can be applied to help organizations operate better and more efficiently.
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Blogs
June 18, 2019
Are Your Government Offices Battle-Ready for a Ransomware Attack?“A business will fall victim to a ransomware attack every 14 seconds in 2019 … every 11 seconds by 2021.” – Cybersecurity Ventures As Baltimore…
Blogs
June 13, 2019
Multi-layered Security: Eliminating Threats with Managed Security ServicesOver the past five years, security breaches have increased by 67%, according to Accenture’s global survey. Traditional security is in trouble. As threat actors deploy…
Blogs
June 6, 2019
Developing an effective IT monitoring strategy that protects your business uptimeAn effective IT monitoring and management strategy helps organizations protect precious uptime to eliminate downtime situations. Every company’s network and server structure are different. Some…
Blogs
May 23, 2019
SD-WAN vs Managed SD-WAN: Which One is Right for Your Business?SD-WAN is revolutionizing networking by improving how businesses connect. But before hopping on the SD-WAN train, you need to decide whether you want to manage…
Blogs
May 16, 2019
Customer Data Protection: How Managed Security Services Can Help Win Back Customer TrustData protection is a matter of trust. That’s why the steady increase in data breaches over the years has left a steady decrease in customer…
Blogs
May 9, 2019
Five Ways Managed SD-WAN Helps Healthcare Providers Improve Telehealth ConnectionsHealthcare providers are finally hopping on the managed SD-WAN train – and telehealth is driving it. In this post, we’ll look at five ways s…
Blogs
May 2, 2019
Mid-sized organizations: protect from Q1 surge of data breaches with managed security servicesMid-sized organizations beware: data breaches against businesses soared 235% in Q1. Managed security services can help organizations combat sophisticated ransomware and trojan attacks. According to…
Blogs
April 25, 2019
One Spoof Too Many … New National Protocol System to Prevent Illegal Caller ID DisguisingIf you’ve ever seen your area code on the caller ID, only to be greeted by a pre-recorded voice message promising to erase your credit…
Blogs
April 18, 2019
Managed SD-WAN: You have the questions, we have the answersSD-WAN is the new buzz word these days. Do you fully understand how it can positively impact your business? Managed SD-WAN can bring benefits and…
Blogs
April 11, 2019
The Main Benefits of Cloud Managed Network ExplainedAs you see in the video, sometimes network complexity can make you want to go back to the antiquated days of pen and paper. However,…
Blogs
April 4, 2019
How to protect uptime and minimize the impact of downtimeIn the world of network downtime, time is money. And because of the loses associated with downtime, time is of the essence. In our recent…
Blogs
April 2, 2019
Cyber Attacks Are On The Rise For HealthcareRansomware attacks on healthcare organizations are expected to quadruple by 2020. In a typical healthcare ransomware attack, a hacker will shut down a portion of…
Blogs
March 28, 2019
Financial Institutions Can Use Cybersecurity as a DifferentiatorAs a financial institution, using cybersecurity as a differentiator can create positive impact on the overall customer experience In the world of finance, a data…
Blogs
March 21, 2019
Here’s what downtime is really costing your businessYour business can tolerate a certain amount of downtime before causing unacceptable damage. But what will it cost you? Many organizations think that downtime events…
Blogs
March 14, 2019
SD-WAN: A No Brainer for Unified CommunicationsDeliver high quality voice and application performance over SD-WAN for your employees, nationwide. Organizations utilize Unified Communications to bridge the gap between multiple locations and…
Blogs
March 13, 2019
Data Retention Policies – A Lifesaver to Avoid Costly LitigationEvery organization is liable for the information it keeps. In a data-driven world, company records and information are everywhere … in servers, in storage, on…
Blogs
February 28, 2019
Production downtime is fueling technology change in manufacturersHow proactive IT management and SD-WAN are helping manufacturers eliminate costly downtime. Technology is a critical need in most organizations, but for manufacturers it often…
Blogs
February 21, 2019
Traditional WAN vs. Software-Defined WANTraditional WAN is out of date. SD-WAN can make your network agile and efficient with the cloud. Almost every IT and business leader today is…
Blogs
February 5, 2019
Cybersecurity in 2019: Don’t Repeat This Year’s MistakesIt’s that time of year again. Time for the wave of posts that discuss the trends and events that shaped the year that was and…
Blogs
January 24, 2019
Meeting Business Challenges with SD-WANSimplify your branch office network with optimized application performance using SD-WAN Today’s enterprise IT has become more sophisticated and bandwidth intensive, creating a complex and…
Blogs
January 17, 2019
Make Your Business Ransomware ProofOne-click on a suspicious email link or attachment could lead to your files being encrypted and a note from a cybercriminal demanding money to unlock…
Blogs
January 10, 2019
4 Key Takeaways from the Ponemon Cloud Security StudyCompanies are increasingly moving IT workloads to the cloud, but are they doing it at the risk of exposing themselves to a data breach? Multiple…
Blogs
January 3, 2019
All Clouds are Not Created EqualLots of companies are moving IT workloads to the public cloud, but is this the right strategy for your business? I’m sure you’re aware by…
Blogs
December 27, 2018
Eliminating Data Disasters with Data Backup in the CloudDisasters hit every organization sooner or later. The cloud, combined with reliable partners, makes recovering from disasters easier than ever before. Disasters have a tendency…
Blogs
July 26, 2018
Solving Enterprise Communication Issues with UCaaSSimplify your Enterprise communications with Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) in the cloud. Enterprise businesses are constantly struggling with communication challenges. Traditionally, business phone…
Blogs
July 12, 2018
Are your Business Communications Secure? Ensure Security with These Standards.Secured business communications mean better connections to your customers. UCaaS (Unified Communications) ensures your security with features like encryption, business continuity, and 24/7/365 support. Security…
Blogs
June 21, 2018
Making the switch to a Cloud Contact CenterImprove customer satisfaction and the customer experience with a hosted UC and Cloud Contact Center solution. One of the many exciting things happening at Magna5…
Blogs
June 14, 2018
Magna5 Now Provides Cloud Managed NetworkManaging your network can be hard, but it doesn’t have to be – that’s why Magna5 now offers Cloud Managed Network. Experience feature-rich benefits and…
White Papers
A Beginner’s Guide To NOC Monitoring and Management
Reduce Costs, Increase Uptime and Improve Performance A network operations center (NOC) is the heart of an IT managed services provider – monitoring, managing and responding…
Blogs
May 31, 2018
Make Collaboration the Heart of Employee Communications with Cloud UCEnhance collaboration to increase productivity and save money Being able to easily connect with your customers, vendors, and fellow employees is key. Without it, employees…
Blogs
April 19, 2018
Internet Service and Business CommunicationsWhat is SD-WAN? Combined with UCaaS, it’s the future for small businesses in 2018 Unified communications, delivered as a service (UCaaS) from the cloud, is…
White Papers
Should You Implement Disaster Recovery In The Cloud?
A fast, flexible data recovery system not only saves thousands – it could save your business. Business Data Loss can be the result of anything…
Blogs
March 28, 2018
Liberate your business with Cloud Unified Communications & CollaborationBusinesses today either evolve or get left behind. We see organizations of all sizes that were once successful, now losing customers because they have not…
Blogs
February 27, 2018
Reliable IT Monitoring and Management: The Benefits of a Fully Managed SolutionAs business pushes the limits of IT availability, productivity and efficiency, the importance of reliable IT operations continues to be apparent. Small- and medium-sized organizations…
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