Plan To Prepare, Respond and Recover From IT Disasters: A Guide for Aberdeen Businesses during Disaster Recovery
The number one question business owners need to ask themselves is what happens if they are faced with an emergency. Do they have a plan that allows their business to continue its service delivery? The ability of an organisation to remain operational following an incident is crucial. System downtime damages can have significant consequences on a business therefore, by developing a Business Continuity Plan, companies can address potential issues and respond efficiently in the wake of a disaster. In our latest blog post, we caught up with managing director Gordon Christie , who explores a business continuity plan and the tactics to use in an incident.
What is a Business Continuity Plan?
Businesses increasingly depend on digital technologies to deliver services and support customers. Therefore having a plan to address potential risks is vital. Business Continuity (BC) and Disaster Recovery (DR) are practices that support an organisation's ability to remain operational after an IT disaster.
Therefore, a Business Continuity Plan is a document that sets out the actions to be taken to prepare, respond and recover from an incident. From natural disasters like fires and floods to human error, cyber-attacks and system failures, IT disasters constantly threaten businesses daily.
Dangers to your business need to be closely considered in order to prevent your operations from failing and, in the event of a disaster, being able to recover quickly. Downtime is not only harmful to your company’s reputation but can also lead directly to lost revenue.
Preparation, Response and Recovery Tactics
The key steps to consider when developing a business continuity plan are preparation, response and recovery. The following tactics outline some actions that can be taken to mitigate loss in the event of an IT disaster.
At IT Hotdesk, we offer business analysis workshops via our customer lunch and learns. During these sessions, we help identify and understand the risks your business may face and help you prepare for the worst so that any potential damage is minimised.
Data Breaches
Preparation: In preparing for a data breach, installing advanced threat prevention, email filtering software and investing in security awareness training is essential for every business. This two-pronged approach allows for threats to be detected prior to an attack taking place.
Investing in security awareness training for staff will ensure
and to mitigate malware, scams and network-based attacks. To keep data safe from attacks, information should be backed up in a separate location outside your company network to keep them safe.
Response: In the event of a data breach attack, the aim is to contain the threat. Disable your network, run anti-malware software where information may have leaked internally, and reset passwords to minimise further damage.
Recovery: When recovering from a data breach attack, utilise anti-malware software to clear any traces of malicious programmes. Once cleared, data can be restored from cloud backups. After the event, the incident should be reviewed in order to identify further issues. Employees should be able to recognise and report breaches as soon as they occur therefore take these incidents as a learning opportunity to reduce your exposure for future threats.
Power Outages
Preparation: In the event of a blackout, it is essential that your information has been regularly backed up. Saving files, contact lists and other important documents in a cloud-based system like Microsoft 365 enables employees to continue working when the main power fails.
Response: The actions taken in the event of a power outage should involve saving your work and turning off equipment before the Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) runs out. Unplug all devices to prevent them from being short-circuited when the power comes back on, and report the power outage to the appropriate authorities.
Recovery: Once the blackout is resolved, to reduce potential hazards and avoid further damage to systems, check for any faulty wiring and reset the circuit breaker prior to turning on devices and network routers.
At IT Hotdesk, we ensure your IT systems can recover quickly and restore business continuity within minutes. Using the latest continuous replication technologies, we provide near-instantaneous recovery solutions with zero data loss.
Every crisis requires a business continuity plan however, the priority for keeping a business operational is having effective data backups. IT infrastructure provides the vital foundation on which your business operation is delivered. Therefore, businesses should have multiple backups and aim to have copies stored onsite, and another in the cloud, by having multiple backups, you mitigate the risk of losing any data.
Plan, prepare and protect your IT infrastructure before disaster strikes. At IT Hotdesk, our team of IT experts work with customers to develop a comprehensive plan tailored to their business needs. Our flexible IT support packages offer trusted, efficient, professional services and guarantee high performance to keep your operations running.
Book a free 1-2-1 consultation today to learn more about Business Continuity Planning and how IT Hotdesk can help your business.
