How Can Managed IT Help with Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery? The Quick Take
How can managed IT help with business continuity and disaster recovery? Managed IT service providers can provide key support to companies looking to safeguard their systems from cyberattacks, natural disasters, or unplanned outages. They take the labor of managing a business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR) system out of house, so a company’s internal IT department can carry on with their daily tasks, knowing their systems are protected. Specifically, they offer:
- System assessment to determine the breadth and depth of protections needed
- Development of a written BCDR plan complete with timelines, budgets, and implementation plans
- Backup protocols for the company’s onsite servers, offsite servers, cloud operations (such as Microsoft Azure and M365), and individual workstations
- Redundant systems for phone/internet lines
- Redundancies of power supply, when applicable
- Maintenance and monitoring of backup systems
- Written emergency management policy for staff and vendors
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Have You Thought About What an Outage Could Cost Your Business?
Have you thought about how much it would cost your business if your data centers went down entirely? For large organizations, the costs rack up quick—at a rate of at least $100,000 to $300,000 an hour, according to this latest report from the Information Technology Intelligence Consulting (ITIC). The impacts vary for small and medium-sized businesses, depending on your industry vertical, the type of information you handle, and how distributed your workforce is. Regardless—system outages are a problem no company can truly afford.
Are you considering a disaster recovery and business continuity (BCDR) plan for your business? If so, it pays to shop for an IT managed service provider who can help with the planning, execution, and maintenance of your plan. A true disaster recovery program touches every part of your IT infrastructure and information technology. The right IT partner can see to it that it’s always running flawlessly.
Let’s dig into what you can expect from a disaster recovery and business continuity plan.
Disaster Recovery Strategies for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses
Every company needs a BCDR plan, regardless of size. However the size and complexity of your BCDR effort will depend on whether your business is on site or distributed/remote, regulations around the data you handle, and how fast or slow you need your data to be backed up in the event of a disaster. This basic checklist will help identify the technologies you can quickly set up to help you recover from business disruptions.
Recovery Speeds Set to Your Needs
One of the first questions an MSP will ask is your recovery time objective, and your recovery point objective. Your Recovery Time Objective (RTO) refers to the amount of time you can afford to be out before the business impacts become too high. For some organizations, this can be a few hours. For others–especially those handling online transactions or sensitive data—their RTO may be minutes. Your Recovery Point Objectives (RPO) refer to the amount of data you can afford to lose before the business impacts become too high. In this case, can you afford for there to be a half day between your system backup snapshots? Or can you only lose ten minutes? A premium MSP can help you determine the right RPO and RTO for your organization, and will calibrate your BCDR plan around this.
Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS)
Blackouts, brownouts and power spikes account for 35% of unexpected downtime and can cause physical damage to computer hardware, resulting in lost or corrupted data. A quality UPS will provide a steady stream of electric current, protecting your hardware from damage due to power spikes, while a battery backup provides temporary power during blackouts. You should have a UPS for any computer running critical applications or storing important data.
Having a UPS for a server is a must—and it should be a smart UPS. That means it includes software that performs an orderly, automatic shutdown of the server after five to 10 minutes, before the battery backup runs down.
Workstation Backups
If your employees are saving data directly to their computer hard drives, your MSP will need to come up with a backup solution that either backs up to an external hard drive automatically, or backs up to the cloud.
Hosted Data Backups
Backing up to the cloud is even better than creating redundant backup drives. Why? Rotating drives is dependent on people taking time away from other tasks—and when they don’t, they make the business vulnerable.
The most complete data backup system combines the two methods. In this setup, locally redundant drives allow for speedy backup and recovery from the most common disruptions, while image-based backups stored securely in the cloud facilitate recovery from more wide-ranging disasters.
Redundant Internet
Speaking of the cloud, many small businesses have completely moved their operations to it. But if all your applications and data reside in the cloud, your business is dead in the water if your internet goes down. Along with many of our clients, If you’re running an enterprise where the majority of your employees work from the office, it you may want to consider getting two internet sources, with hardware configured to fail-over automatically when the connection goes down. This is especially important for medical facilities, factories, or large on-site call centers, where loss of connection can be a real calamity.
Paying for both business fiber and cable connections may be too much for your small startup, but using a wireless hub from one of the cellular carriers can get your computer and up to five others back online in a few minutes.
Hosted VoIP
Hosted VoIP is fantastic in certain situations and overkill in others, but for business continuity, it’s hard to beat. Consider this scenario: Your office is destroyed, and because your phone system was in the office, it will likely be a while before you’re able to talk with clients and vendors the way you want to. Conversely, if you use hosted VoIP from the right provider that’s set up the right way, business resumption can be seamless.
How Can Managed IT Help with Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery? Creating a Comprehensive Business Continuity Plan
A comprehensive business continuity plan (BCP) is essential for maintaining operations during and after a disaster. Managed IT services can help you develop and implement a BCP that addresses all aspects of your business operations. Here’s how:
Risk Assessment and Analysis:
Managed IT providers conduct thorough risk assessments to identify potential threats to your business operations. This includes evaluating the impact of natural disasters, cyberattacks, and other disruptions.
Strategy Development:
Based on the risk assessment, managed IT services help you develop strategies to mitigate identified risks. This includes creating backup solutions, establishing redundant systems, and ensuring critical data is protected.
Data Backup and Recovery:
Managed IT services implement robust data backup solutions to ensure that your data is regularly backed up and can be quickly restored in the event of a disaster. This includes both on-site and cloud-based backup options.
Communication Plans:
Effective communication is crucial during a disaster. Managed IT services help you develop communication plans to ensure that employees, customers, and stakeholders are informed and updated throughout the recovery process.
Training and Awareness:
Managed IT providers offer training programs to ensure that your employees are aware of the business continuity plan and know their roles and responsibilities during a disaster.
Written policies:
Your disaster recovery plan should include a written game plan everyone can refer to in times of emergency. A premium MSP will have security experts on hand who can provide written policies that will make your response go much more smoothly. These written plans also come in handy when demonstrating your good security practices to cyber risk insurers or regulators.
Testing Your Disaster Recovery Plan
Having a disaster recovery plan (DRP) is not enough; it must be regularly tested and updated to ensure its effectiveness. Managed IT services can assist with the testing and maintenance of your DRP. Here’s how:
Regular Testing:
Managed IT services conduct regular tests of your disaster recovery plan to identify any weaknesses or gaps. This includes simulated disaster scenarios to ensure that all components of the plan work as intended.
Plan Updates:
Based on the results of the tests, managed IT providers help you update and refine your disaster recovery plan. This ensures that the plan remains effective and relevant as your business and technology landscape evolve.
Performance Metrics:
Managed IT services track and analyze performance metrics during tests to measure the effectiveness of your disaster recovery plan. This includes recovery time objectives (RTO) and recovery point objectives (RPO).
Documentation and Reporting:
Comprehensive documentation and reporting are essential for continuous improvement. Managed IT services provide detailed reports on the outcomes of disaster recovery tests, including recommendations for improvements.
Employee Training:
Regular training sessions are conducted to ensure that employees are familiar with the disaster recovery plan and know how to execute it during an actual disaster.
Want to Know How Managed IT Help with Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery? Call Integris.
As one of the nation’s fastest growing MSPs, we help more than 1,000 companies across the nation handle their IT. We have a comprehensive, scalable suite of backup and disaster recovery products available for companies of all sizes. We’d love to talk to you about them. Contact us today for a free consultation.
