Catastrophic Event: What Now?
We create disaster prevention plans that avoid catastrophic data loss
The amount of confidential data a small business holds can be staggering. Who knew?
From sensitive documents and financial spreadsheets through CRM systems, websites, employee management and sensitive Intellectual property–you hold massive amounts of very private data that leaves you vulnerable to fines, lawsuits and brand damage.
What is IT disaster recovery and prevention?
IT disaster recovery and prevention plans have two goals
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- Recognizing vulnerabilities – design measures to prevent risks, reduce their negative consequences, or avoid them entirely
- Contingency planning – this means your business can continue in the event of a disaster, quickly and efficiently
We design plans so everyone knows what to do, no matter what.
How safe is your data?
Could your operations function if all your technology systems went down? Is all your data secure and stored in three different locations? if so, could it be recovered easily?
If the answer to these questions is “no” or “I don’t know,” now is the time to start thinking about implementing an IT disaster and recovery plan. All it takes is one problem, such as your business premises flooding or ransomware to spread throughout your network, for you to lose your IT systems and the data they contain.
I don’t have an IT Team. How do I set everything up?
Many small- and medium-sized businesses don’t have the IT resources to carry out this essential work. The Renascence IT team are experts at creating and implementing IT disaster recovery and prevention plans to keep your business functioning under challenging circumstances.
Our 7 step disaster recovery and prevention plan
Step 1: Audit Your Business
We conduct an audit of your business, premises, systems, processes, and equipment to identify issues and areas of risk.
Next, we identify which risks can be fixed immediately. For example, address building and equipment, minimize immediate loss due to physical disasters, and install commercial grade detection and prevention systems to protect your data from malware, hackers, and viruses.
Step 2: Create a plan that covers all risks
We address risks that require a trackable process to avoid, reduce, and prevent risk. We work with you to devise a complete plan reviewing each scenario and propose appropriate mitigation plans.
Some plans could be simple processes, such as devising safe password protocols. Others may involve larger, more complex scenarios, such as how employees will continue to work when all systems go down.
We’ll ensure that every part of your plan is clear and easy to understand to ensure fast implementation. To create awareness of the plan, we offer structured employee training so everyone understands their role in the event of trouble.
Step 3: Establish the chain of communication
Your IT disaster recovery and prevention plan must have clear lines of communication should an event occur. This is usually done by each department, with one individual having the responsibility to communicate with the rest of the team. A second or third individual should be identified as backup.
We can make sure that you avoid common traps. For example, an often-overlooked aspect of communication is ensuring that employee contact details are up-to-data, available offline, and outside of the company IT systems.
Step 4: Power supply backup: electricity really matters
Thunderstorms, ice storms, failure of a power grid? Your entire IT infrastructure is useless if you don’t have power. Talk to us about Uninterruptible Power Supply systems, generators, and location-specific surge protection.
Step 5: Plan for fast data recovery
Data corruption and loss are genuine threats. Should either one occur, it can flatline a business. Data backup and recovery are vital, so we back up your data to multiple physical and geographical locations. Additionally, we backup data on physical devices, such as external hard drives, as well as in the cloud. Cloud backup not only prevents catastrophic loss, it means any employee can access data from any remote location during a crisis.
Step 6: Set up remote working protocols
Equipping your employees with the tools necessary to continue working from anywhere adds flexibility to your business. Should trouble occur they can continue working, which is good for your business, your staff, and your clients.
Step 7: Ongoing reviews
Technology and its associated threats are ever-evolving. A disaster recovery plan that worked last year has become obsolete. We review and update IT disaster plans regularly so that you remain prepared.