With Disaster Recovery Solutions, “One Size Fits All” Never Fits

One key to business success is the ability to manage and exploit masses of data. That’s a given.

For companies of any size, this calls for sophisticated IT systems with components that precisely match the organization’s functional requirements in virtually every area. Many of those components must be capable of interacting with each other, seamlessly and reliably. Each element of a well-designed IT system is carefully selected, installed with appropriate customization, and continually monitored in production.

Obvious, right? Not always. One notable exception can be disaster recovery.

Some companies equate disaster recovery with the fire extinguisher on the wall – easy to ignore because they hope they’ll never have to use it. It’s equally easy to think of disaster recovery as simply a fancy name for data backup, but vital though it is, backup is only one piece of the puzzle. In addition, a company may not fully realize how damaging even a brief stretch of downtime can be, not just because of the expensive and disruptive loss of productivity, but through the possibly irretrievable loss of critical data.

From these simplistic perspectives, companies are apt to think of disaster recovery systems as necessary but essentially simple and similar, like basic office supplies.

In fact, every company needs a disaster recovery solution that is meticulously tailored to its requirements if disaster strikes. And no characteristic is more crucial than scale.

One size does not fit all.

Any company’s goal should be Total Business Protection, which can be briefly summarized as effective cloud backup, with server recovery solutions that provide secure and reliable methods of recovering and restoring data quickly.

As with all the company’s other IT components, achieving Total Business Protection begins with careful planning. A solid disaster recovery plan is founded on a set of strategic steps.

• Generate redundant copies of everything that is too important to lose. Once data is gone, it’s gone.
• Procure all the tools and implement all the procedures needed to recover operating systems and applications. This is imperative for returning to normal productivity and preserving market position.
• Be sure to include tools to rapidly restore communications across the organization.
• Create, test and thoroughly document the plan, prioritizing the most necessary applications and data files and ensuring that they can be up and running with all possible speed.
• Maintain the plan with highly detailed and regularly scheduled updates and evaluations. When a plan fails to accommodate changes within systems, the risk of disaster skyrockets.
• Be sure that all team members understand the importance of disaster recovery and are well-prepared to play their assigned roles as soon as the alarm is raised.

If you don’t have this kind of high-level plan in place, give us a call. We’re always available to talk about your specific disaster recovery requirements.