Network downtime is a serious issue because disruption can result in significant financial consequences. Since this is the case, it’s imperative to get your network back up and running as soon as possible. An effective disaster recovery plan (DRP) can help your company bounce back with minimal downtime.
4 Disaster Recovery Goals
Before developing a DRP, it’s important to determine what you want your plan to accomplish. This will help you create a recovery plan that works well for your needs. Some common goals include risk reduction, business continuity, maintenance, and quick response. Keep in mind, recovery goals are unique for each business, so what works for another company may not work for yours. For this article, we’ll focus on four common goals.
Risk Reduction
An important step to a good DRP is to reduce the risk of downtime. To reduce your organization’s risk of downtime, you’ll need to perform a risk assessment. The assessment will inform you of existing vulnerabilities that could lead to problems. Armed with this knowledge, you can take action to minimize those vulnerabilities.
Business Continuity
In case of an emergency, measures should be in place to keep your business running regardless of downtime. A strategy to keep critical business functions operational is called business continuity. Disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS) makes business continuity possible by providing redundant data backup and failover services. Redundant data replicates mission-critical data so you don’t have to worry about data loss. Failover service provides you with backup equipment that takes over automatically after your primary system fails.
Maintenance
Once a DRP is created, it will need to be updated regularly, as the risks facing your network can change over time. It would be a good idea to have your IT staff run routine risk assessments. This will make sure your DRP still covers all issues if disaster strikes at any given time. Your DRP should also be adjusted whenever your company adopts new technology.
Quick Response
Disaster recovery can significantly decrease the amount of downtime your company experiences. However, minimizing downtime also requires your IT team to react to the problem in a timely fashion. It’s important to create a plan that will be able to mobilize and coordinate your IT team as soon as an issue arises.
Minimize Downtime With Disaster Recovery Services
Normal disaster recovery services require an action to occur before operations can be restored. With Affiliated Communications, we offer a slightly different approach called disaster avoidance. Disaster avoidance as a service automatically restores operations, ensuring your business will continue to run despite interruptions. If you would like to learn more about disaster avoidance, give us a call.
