Data is the most valuable asset that your company has – by far. Without your data and your mission-critical IT infrastructure, your business is guaranteed to grind to a halt.
Just how important is it to protect your data? Here’s a scary statistic – about 60% of all small businesses that suffer a serious data loss or breach will shut down within 6 months.
You need to protect your data. To do that, you need a Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP). A DRP is a set of best practices and procedures that you can take after a serious data incident to ensure your data is secure, intact, and recoverable. What should your DRP include? Here are the top 4 elements of a great DRP.
1. Robust Data Backup Solutions
Your data should be backed up in multiple locations. Ideally, you should have both on-site backups, as well as cloud-based backups. This way, your on-site data is protected from a cloud breach – and your cloud data is protected if your facility is affected by a data breach or a natural disaster.
The more redundancy you have for your data backup solutions, the better. If you are able to recover and restore your major IT systems quickly, you have a much better chance of overcoming disaster, and resuming operations with minimal loss of profit.
2. A Disaster Recovery Team With Specified Roles
You will want to define the role of each member of the IT department in the case of a disaster. For example, your network engineers should be responsible for analyzing and fixing the network. Database administrators should be working to restore database backups, and so on.
When everyone understands their role and responsibilities during a crisis, things are much easier. You don’t have to worry about assigning duties – each individual will function properly as part of a team.
3. A List Of Procedures That Will Be Undertaken During An Incident
Clarity is of utmost importance during a disaster. It’s a difficult and tumultuous time – so having a “master plan” of procedures and recovery steps that must be performed immediately after an incident is crucial. If an employee is confused about what they need to do, they can simply consult this roadmap.
4. A Comprehensive Communication Plan
You will need to communicate the data loss or incident to a variety of different people, companies, and agencies, such as:
- Customers and clients
- Vendors
- Suppliers
- Third-party IT companies
- Cloud solution providers
By communicating the situation clearly and effectively to these people – and outlining your steps for recovery – you can minimize the negative impact, and quickly rebuild the reputation of your business. Honesty and transparency are key.
Follow These Steps – Protect Yourself Against Data Loss!
At K3 Technology, we have years of experience creating bulletproof, simple Disaster Recovery Plans. If you’re not sure where to start when developing a DRP, please give us a call at 303-770-8050. We’d love to learn more about your needs, and how we can help.
