This past week, the Southeastern Pennsylvania region was hit with an unprecedented storm system. Hit with flooding that rivals Hurricane Sandy, and seven tornadoes touching down in Bucks and Montgomery Counties, the losses experienced were catastrophic for many. Families lost their homes or had their belongings flooded out. Businesses lost offices, assets, and many lost valuable time as their networks were shut down.Hence why disaster recovery protocols are so important.
It has been stated in the past that a company can survive three days of downtime before beginning to approach it’s demise. In fact, 70% of businesses who go under for more than three days, go under for good. A proper game plan and proper implementation can minimize downtime and help your
business survive the wrath of a natural disaster. The best way to do this is by teaming with a Managed Service Provider such as Delval Technology Solutions to help you protect your business and act in your best interest.
The first thing to do is seemingly the most obvious, being proactive and making a plan. Take stock of all of your inventory, be it virtual or physical. This isn’t limited to things you are selling or shipping. How many work stations do you have? How many phone lines do you operate? Are there ways
to better secure your facility? What disasters are you attempting to get ahead of or protect against? Where is your data going? Is there a secondary site you can move to? These are all important questions to ask yourself so you know the destination.
Proper data backup is an important part of a good recovery plan. However, just backing up your data is only one step. It has to be accessible to your team and yourself no matter the situation or location. It is imperative to test your network. This will ensure that everything is being backed up properly and is legible when you need it to be. Also, it is important to make sure that this data is accessible from anywhere, if your office is underwater and you have to work from home, you still have it. With an MSP such as Delval Technology Solutions, we handle bringing your data safely and securely to the cloud.
From there, it is able to be accessed remotely by your team. This isn’t merely limited to your data either, your software from the 365 suite even down to your phone systems can be accessible from the cloud.
It isn’t only a matter of your virtual data. The human and hardware factors are important as well. There is a story that gets told around the office here at Delval Technology Solutions. There was a major storm a few years back that knocked out power to a client that ran a logistics company. They were tasked with guiding and tracking trucks that were still on the road, and downtime was not something they could afford to have. They had a full backup
plan, employees on site, but were not prepared for an outage of this magnitiude. The DTS team worked all day and night to bring out generators to them and rewire the premises to get them back up and running so all their data and network capabilities were accessible to keep the trucks running. Working hand in hand with the company’s team, DTS was able to ensure that the disaster, while inconvenient was not a catastrophe.
Keeping communications up is also a key factor for companies. Clients and vendors call you daily. Your team needs to be able to continue their day to day operations, be it simple communications, collaborating on projects, or sending invoices. This all requires a network that can stay up and running regardless of where you are. The best way to achieve this is the cloud. A proper cloud service provider such as Delval Technology Solutions, is
proactive in their cloud approach, preparing you for any catastrophe before it hits.
All of this may not prevent a disaster. However, it will allow your business to bounce back instead of crash and burn. Make your plan. Get your Disaster team picked, making sure you have all the experts you need. If you don’t have them on hand, contact an MSP such as Delval Technology Solutions. Back your data up and test it, as well as test your cloud technology. Take an inventory of what you have, and finally make sure you don’t lose communication. This will help you ensure that your business isn’t a statistic in anything other than successful disaster recovery.