More and more businesses rely on technology to conduct their business and communicate with customers. What some business owners don't always think about is how quickly a disaster can disrupt their productivity. Have you thought of a disaster recovery plan or a business continuity plan? These plans should include more than just a data backup and not all IT service providers include disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS).
At St. Louis Managed IT, we definitely recommend having a support agreement in place. Managed service providers (MSP) manage your IT systems but also manage your data, security, and offer DRaaS options. St. Louis Managed IT offers DRaaS and we partner with our customers to come up with a disaster recovery plan to prepare your company for unexpected events.
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Are you new to business continuity and disaster recovery?
A disaster recovery plan (DR Plan) is a plan that encompasses a company's IT infrastructure and how those pieces would be put back together if a disaster were to strike. These disasters include fire, flood, tornados, and even cyber-attacks. St. Louis Managed IT's professionals will work with you and your team to have a plan in place that includes preventative measures, backups, and recovery strategy for your company. Every company is different so we tailor this plan to your needs, including recovery time objective (RTO) and how easily we can get you up and running again.
A business continuity plan is a plan that includes all aspects of the business and what it would take to get the business back to it's full capacity after a disaster. Please consider a risk assessment or business impact analysis if you haven't already.
A risk assessment takes a look at your IT infrastructure and points out any weak spots. Questions that might be asked include "Are all computers plugged into a power supply?" or "What are your steps to ensure data protection?". After a risk assessment, an IT company is recommended to manage your IT infrastructure and fix any of the weak points identified in the assessment. A service-level agreement (SLA) should be included in your partnership with a managed IT company to outline what all is included and expected from them. Without a SLA, your company could lack help when needed and in moments like disaster recovery, that time is crucial.
A business impact analysis helps your company create a business continuity plan. Outlining which parts of your business need to be up and running first could affect how much downtime your company may experience in a disaster. But with a plan in place, your IT team can get to work on the more critical areas of your business first. This plan can also help you pinpoint how much time your company can be down without taking a catastrophic financial loss. Both the risk assessment and business impact analysis can help you create the right strategy in the event of a disaster for your company.
DRaaS
As mentioned earlier, your IT provider should have a DRaaS offering. When your IT team has experience with DRaaS, they can not only help you quickly and efficiently in the event of a disaster but they can also help you protect and prepare for one before it happens. St. Louis Managed IT can help you decide is a local (Windows or Server), cloud (AWS), or hybrid could environment is best for your company. Our IT professionals can also engage data management and data backup programs like VEEAM, so your data is saved offsite. And of course, applications and equipment will be used to protect against the possibility of a cyber-attack.
Putting together your IT Disaster Recovery Plan
It's not on you as the company to fully create a Disaster Recovery Plan. Partnering with a DRaaS team can ensure your IT infrastructure is planned for in the event of a disaster. Your IT provider will work with you to implement any changes to the systems, equipment, or applications that are required.
Who is in charge in the case of a disaster?
In the event of a disaster, having one point of contact for the managed IT company to communicate can help the IT provider know exactly who is the decision maker. Ideally, this person isn't a member of the IT staff because they will be busy recovery data. But by designating a point of contact, it will free up more time for your IT team to resolve any problems as quickly as possible.
What order should the devices and services need to be restored?
After performing a business impact analysis, you should have an outline of which arms of your business are the most critical to get up and running first. These areas of your business are typically the areas that are vital to producing income for your company.
How quickly should you recover?
Various backup options include quick recovery and some options are more cost-effective than others. Based on your company's recovery time objective (RTO), we will help you decide which backup option would work best for you. Knowing how long you can go without accessing your data will help with deciding these backup options.
In the event of a disaster or cyber-attack, having a list of all contact information for your vendors as well as a list of software vendors will be key. Once all vendors are contacted, your systems will be triaged to assess the affected elements. From there, you can jump into your recovery plan and begin your disaster recovery.
If a natural disaster prevents you from accessing your physical location, you should have a plan in place for a temporary workspace. Your insurance policy may have services to help in this scenario.
What is your Recovery Point Objective?
Your company will likely determine your recovery point objective when you're creating a disaster recovery plan and business continuity plan. The recovery point objective is the amount of data loss that is acceptable due to a disaster that requires your company to pause. These include natural disasters, equipment failures, or cyber-attacks. Knowing this recovery point objective can help you decide which type of backup plan is best for you (usually a hybrid solution). Every backup plan has options that include how often things are backed up and the recovery time needed so it's important to pick a plan that makes the most sense for your business.
Quarterly Reviews
Your recovery services and business continuity plan should be assessed quarterly. Your IT infrastructure and business' needs are always changing and being one step ahead of a disaster is imperative. Every change is considered like changing to a Mac instead of Windows, new IT assets, and any information systems your company uses. Your managed IT company will work with you to make sure all your bases are covered.
Your company will inevitably run into some sort of data recovery need. When that happens, it's important to record what happened, how it was resolved, and what steps were put into place to avoid an issue again. This record is called a disaster recovery journal and it should be handed down to any new IT provider so they can understand any issues that were faced before them. This helps the IT professional to make decisions and recommend technology in the future.
St. Louis Managed IT can run a risk assessment for you to help you determine any changes needed to your disaster recovery plan or to make one if you don't have a plan at all. Disaster recovery and business continuity plans shouldn't be an afterthought. It could save your company precious time and money.