Preparing for an IT Disaster

IT disasters are devastating to the infrastructure of any business. In 2018, threats to your IT infrastructure are growing no matter what sector your business operates in. If disaster strikes, will you be prepared?

What does an IT disaster look like?

IT disasters are classified as either natural or man-made. Natural disasters are floods, tornados, earthquakes, or any natural event that damages your infrastructure. Preparing for this type of disaster is especially critical for businesses in high-risk areas. In contrast, man-made disasters can be malicious, like sabotage or cyberattacks, but they can also have more benign causes, like power outages, or even simple human error. Whatever the cause of your IT downtime, a comprehensive Disaster Recovery Plan is the key to getting your business up-and-running again.

How do you build a Disaster Recovery Plan?

The first step to putting a Disaster Recovery Plan together is to analyze all potential threats and develop a plan for each scenario. Not all scenarios are equally likely to occur, so try to anticipate which risks are the most probable. If your business operates in a coastal area, for example, you may be more concerned with the effects of flooding than tornadoes. The next step to becoming disaster-ready is to determine what each of your information systems is doing for your business and what the potential impact of a disruption might be. This means evaluating the possible effects, such as financial, safety, regulatory, legal, reputation, and so on, of natural and man-made disasters on business operations. Analyzing the impact of a disaster on each area of your business IT will allow for the identification of system priorities and dependencies.

While Disaster Recovery Planning, many companies make the mistake of focusing only on technology, and not on people and processes. Disaster Recovery Plans should not focus solely on recovering data and servers. Make sure your team knows there is a plan and is made aware of who to call during a crisis. Knowing who you will call for help, such as Integritek, in the event of a cyberattack or system failure, will give you and your team peace of mind.

Even a great Disaster Recovery Plan could quickly become obsolete if it is not updated regularly, especially given how quickly the business IT landscape is changing. After making changes to your internal systems, remember to update your Disaster Recovery Plan to include major software updates. Your plan is not complete unless it takes into account all of the technologies, systems, and applications currently in place.

What should your Disaster Recovery Plan accomplish?

Although there is no one-size fits all approach, a good Disaster Recovery Plan has five key goals:

• Minimize the disruption of business operations
• Minimize risk of delays
• Ensure a level of security
• Assure reliable backup systems
• Aid in restoring operations with speed

Not sure where to begin? Call Integritek. Your data is too important to risk. We will partner with you to craft your unique Disaster Recovery Plan, taking your specific business needs into consideration. We are your information technology partner. Contact us today to protect your business from the unexpected. Your data is too important to risk.