Do you have an IT Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) for your business? If you’re like most business owners you’ve focused on running your company. You’ve likely not prepared or updated your plan for the unexpected. It’s not uncommon for small businesses to overlook this aspect of proactive planning. It is also very common for businesses to have an outdated DRP because they’ve not been practiced or revised in many years. Disaster Recovery Plans are a major part of your Business Continuity Planning.
These plans are comprehensive and take time to develop, but are an invaluable asset in the event a minor or major disaster occurs. Much like a backup – you’ll only need to use it, when you need to use it. DRPs can really help take the guesswork out of what to do in an emergency situation. A DRP is the difference between execution during an emergency or scrambling to figure out what to do.
Disaster Recovery Plans do not need to be complex and they do not have to be intimately detailed. But they do need to provide you guidance in an emergency. Some questions that a DRP answers include:
- Where is my Data stored?
- How will I restore my Data?
- In the event of loss of my business location
- How will I continue business operations?
- Where will my business operate from?
- Where will my staff work?
- Approximately what capital will I need to replace my equipment?
- Where will my capital come from? Rainy day fund? Credit? Which bank?
- If one or more of my staff can’t work from the office due to pandemic / recovery etc. How do I continue to keep them working?
- How do I keep and service my customers if I can’t open my doors?
- What messaging should I be delivering to my customers and what mechanism will I use for that?
- What is my re-open/recovery plan?
- How long will it take to recover?
As you can see these are examples of questions that will need answers should a disaster occur. Documenting these answers beforehand will significantly reduce stress and time scrambling around during a disaster. Consequently you’ll be able to focus on getting your recovery moving along as quickly as possible.
Exomeridian is more than just a cloud storage company, we’re your partner when it comes to preparing for the unexpected. Let us help you develop or refine your IT Disaster Recovery Plan and implement the suggestions in that plan that will help eliminate challenges should a disaster occur.
For more information with developing a solid Disaster Recovery Plan drop us a line or give us a call. We’re happy to help!