As the old adage goes: “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” and it could not be more true than in developing a business continuity plan. A little work now could save you a lot of problems when a natural disaster hits.
As Hurricane Sandy so vividly reminded us, having a plan in place for how to deal with a natural disaster can be critical to the long-term success of your business. This is commonly called a business continuity plan and there are two main components to consider:
1) Local Contingencies
While your first concern is probably the safety and well-being of your employees, once you know that they are OK, your thoughts will turn to getting your business back up and running as quickly as possible. For example, if your employees cannot come into the office, do they have the capabilities to work from home? How critical is having a backup power source to your business if the area is without electricity? Who has access to your offsite backups, if your office is not accessible? How can you communicate with customers to let them know your business is not fully operational (and ask for their patience)?
2) National/Global Contingencies
If you have offices outside of San Diego, will they be able to continue doing business if a natural disaster hits San Diego? For example, if all of your servers and data are stored in San Diego and we do not have power here, your other offices would not be able to do business. So, making sure your data and applications are spread across different regions can make sure you remain operational even when a natural disaster hits one region.
Using Software as a Service (SaaS) can help with both types of contingencies. If employees can access all of your software and data from any computer with their login and password, they can begin working as soon as the power and internet connections are restored. Other locations can continue to operate normally even if one location is shut down. And when you choose a reputable SaaS provider, they spread their servers across multiple locations in case of a disaster.
As the old adage goes: “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” and it could not be more true than in developing a business continuity plan. A little work now could save you a lot of problems when a natural disaster hits.
About Skyriver IT
Our goal at Skyriver IT is to deliver frustration-free IT. We provide small and midsize companies with the information needed to make better IT and business decisions. If you would like to discuss how we can help make your IT frustration free, please call (858) 812-9322 or visit http://www.skyriverit.com/
