On Tuesday, July 9th, it was reported that firefighters are burning forest undergrowth near homes and businesses in the mountains northwest of Las Vegas to protect them from two large Nevada wildfires. Local Las Vegas casino owners have been kind enough to offer rooms to those who’ve been evacuated; although, if things don’t come under control, they too could go up in flames.
The wildfires burning northwest of Las Vegas are within a quarter-mile of homes and businesses and have charred an area the size of Manhattan. Billowing smoke is visible from downtown Las Vegas and fine ash is falling everywhere.
Reno is also in danger; in northern Nevada, more than 1,060 firefighters worked to stem the spread of a bigger wildfire that grew Monday to 40 square miles in the Pine Nut Mountains southwest of Reno.
Can’t See The Forest For The Trees?
If you “can’t see the forest for the trees,” you can’t see the entire situation clearly because you’re looking too closely at small details, or because you’re too closely involved. This is the case for business owners who don’t have a Business Continuity Plan in place; and business owners in Reno and Las Vegas could soon literally see their money go up in flames unless they’re prepared. This plus other recent weather and manmade disasters should be a wake-up call for businesses in Las Vegas, Reno and any location to immediately develop and implement a Business Continuity Plan.
What is a Business Continuity Plan (BCP)?
A BCP protects your IT infrastructure in the event of a disaster (manmade or natural), and recovers data using a disaster recovery plan (DRP). If a disaster occurs and you don’t have a BCP in place, your IT systems can shut down, and your business operations will come to a grinding halt, resulting in a significant loss of revenue and irreparable damage to your client and customer relationships. Clients will simply take their business to your competitor who has a BCP in place.
Simple power outages cause 91% of all business closures, and these can occur without warning—shutting down your business as you watch your livelihood and money “go up in flames.”
Because of this, a BCP is now a critical component of business management. In addition to protecting your IT infrastructure and data a BCP:
- Will dramatically increase your IT recovery capabilities.
- Guarantees that you can always meet your clients’ expectations,
- Shows due diligence to your board of directors, shareholders and key stakeholders,
- Ensures you can continue to meet contractual, legal and regulatory requirements, and
- Will protect your company’s reputation.
Business Continuity is not only to protect you from the high-profile disasters mentioned above—It’s about being prepared for any incident that can cause a disruption to your IT operations.
Call our team of business continuity experts today to implement and monitor a BCP for your company that ensures your critical IT data is stored in an offsite data center where it’s protected and recoverable 24/7.
And remember—be prepared!—A BCP must be implemented before a disaster occurs.
For more information or a no-obligation BCP consult, contact our team of IT Disaster Recovery specialists today.
