Have you planned for this? Disaster Planning Essentials for A Small Business.

Have you planned for the worst-case scenarios in your business?

No one likes to think about bad things happening, much less plan for them. But, planning for the worst and testing to make sure that your business can survive are critical activities that every organisation should complete.

A disaster can happen at any time on any day and is likely to occur at the most inconvenient time. If your data is essential to your business, and you cannot afford to have your operations halted for days – even weeks – due to data loss or corruption, you need to take action now. If you aren’t already prepared, you run the risk of having a disaster knocking on your door before you have a plan in place to handle it.

Over the next two weeks, I will be providing you with our “10 Disaster Planning Essentials for a Small Business Network” tips. These tips are ten things you should have in place to make sure your business could be back up and running again in the event of a disaster.

TIP #1 - Have a written plan

As simple as it may sound, just thinking through in ADVANCE what needs to happen if your server has a meltdown, your business is crippled by Ransomware or a natural disaster wipes out your office, will go a long way in getting you back fast. At a minimum, the plan should contain details on what type of disaster could happen and a step-by-step process of what to do, who should do it and how. Also include contact information for various providers and username and password information for various key web sites. Writing this plan will also allow you to think about what you need to budget for backup, maintenance and disaster recovery. If you can’t afford to have your network down for more than a few hours, then you need a plan that can get you back up and running within that time frame. You may want the ability to virtualise your server, allowing the office to run off of the virtualised server while the real server is repaired.  If you can afford to be down for a couple of days, there are more cost-effective solutions.  Once a plan is written, print out a copy and store it in a fireproof safe, an offsite copy (at your home) and a copy with your IT consultant.

If you need help implementing these Disaster Planning Essentials? We are here to help, call us on (03) 9001 0817 or visit us online at www.dspelectronics.com.au/protect for more information and assistance.