When bad things happen in today’s digital world, it’s a near certainty that technology will be affected to at least some degree. That, in turn, means bad things for business — things like interruptions and downtime, lost and corrupted data, and damaged property and equipment. If the damage is severe enough, or if business operations are impacted for too long, it could even strike a deathblow, as has proven the case in far too many instances. Disasters that impact business technology are business disasters. Therefore, it’s crucial that businesses of all sizes and scopes do the up-front planning necessary to mitigate the risks of disasters before they strike, and also build, test and maintain rock-solid plans to minimize the damage if and when disaster strikes.
Understanding the Threats
Technology disasters come in all shapes, sizes and scopes. Some of the more well-known disaster scenarios include those of the natural variety (e.g., tornadoes, hurricanes, winter storms, floods, earthquakes, forest fires); man-made disasters (e.g., infrastructure-related fires, bombs, biological and/or chemical attacks, terrorist attacks); politically fueled disasters (e.g., riots, strikes, revolutions, civil disturbances); and disasters emanating from negligence, human error or malicious intent. Even something as simple as a roof leak can lead to a business disaster if that leak occurs above the server room that houses your network equipment. Acknowledging the harsh reality that the least of your problems will be data recovery or business interruption in the event of a nuclear or chemical detonation, let’s instead suppose your business falls prey to one of the most common scenarios—say a power outage, flood or internet outage. What happens next? Who’s involved? What’s the plan? Who’s in charge? Is there a plan? Who’s responsible for what? How many hours can you be down before you start losing customers—and losing real money? Many questions must be addressed in advance of a technology disaster—and there’s so much at stake. According to the Institute for Business and Home Safety, an estimated 25% of businesses do not reopen following a major disaster—yet 74% of business owners don’t have any disaster recovery plan in place.Taking Action Through Planning
You can avert technology disasters, or at least minimize the damage and ensure continuity of business operations in their wake. All it takes is planning. Here’s how you can prepare.- Begin planning now. Develop and document a well-structured and easily understood plan that will help your company recover from a technology disaster as quickly and effectively as possible. Plan to protect your critical assets and workers in each disaster scenario. Also, ask tough questions, such as how many hours you can be down before you start losing customers.
- Identify critical assets. Which items are absolutely necessary (e.g., data, property, equipment) to access on a day-to-day basis in order to stay in business? This list will look different for every business. Be sure to account for elements like important IT systems, data, applications, critical personnel and processes.
- Make a plan for workers. You should have an idea of what every type of employee should do in any kind of disaster. Where do they go? What do they do? How do you keep them safe? How do you keep them working? Additionally, is your business set up in a way that enables your employees to work from home—and are you leveraging cloud technologies where possible?
- Develop a communications plan. Post-disaster communication is one of the most common issues that companies face. Once you know where everyone will go, you’ll need a way for them to stay in touch. Communication methods to use during disasters include mass notification / texting, voicemails, emails, emergency information lines, and call trees.
- Account for systems and data. Systems and data can create disasters of their own making, so make sure these systems are tested often. Also, make sure that any service-related issues that would keep a particular system from functioning properly are rectified as a first priority. Some important steps along these lines include:
- Ensuring you have both local and off-site data backups.
- Testing the process of restoring files every quarter.
- Utilizing cloud backups, which are the most effective off-site backup strategy, because they are automated and have less human interaction. Cloud solutions have also recently come down in price, so they’re more affordable than ever.
- Consider using Software as a Service (SaaS) applications (e.g., Office 365 for Microsoft Office Suite and email) whenever possible.
- Find an alternative location. If your office or facility has been affected by a disaster, you need a place for your “critical people” to continue business operations. This can be a particular challenge for small businesses. However, some options do exist:
- Rent a small space large enough for your critical employees.
- Rent a flexible workspace on an hourly, daily or even yearly basis.
- Utilize ShareDesk, an on-demand workspace.
- Work from home if possible (assuming your technology supports it).
- Appoint leadership. You’ll need someone to take control and execute the plan. Your leaders need to know the disaster recovery plan and be capable of testing it. They must be ready and able to report back inefficiencies and implement changes—and above all, be capable of taking decisive action.
- Finally, test the plan. You’ve identified what the critical assets are, who the critical employees are, and where your team will redeploy. Now it’s time to put all of it to the test.
- Specific actions that employees should take
- Communication at all points throughout the organization—and beyond it as well (i.e., to customers, stakeholders and possibly the public at large)
- Plans to protect your key systems and data
- A list of alternate locations from which your employees can work
- Identification of emergency leaders
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Our goal as a technology provider is to take the burden of technology off of your plate and give you the peace of mind that we have it handled. Our partners know they are only a few seconds away from having a knowledgeable engineer on the phone and ready to address their technology woes. We pride ourselves on not being your typical IT person. Our “Techs who can Talk” approach to technical support shows that the client experience is always at the forefront of our minds. When you choose Lutz Tech, you don't just get an IT professional - you get a technology partner.Recent News & Insights
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