Complete data loss is like being burglarized

The best small business IT solutions are the ones that solve the biggest problems before and after disaster strikes. Anyone who has suffered the destruction of their personal hard drive knows how a burglary victim feels. You know stuff is gone, but you’re not absolutely sure what’s missing until you go looking for it.

You can always get another computer and restore your operating system and application software.  However, what always turns up missing are:

• those software settings that get you to where you need to go with one click
• some or all of your application data files (documents, spreadsheets, database tables)
• all your accumulated personal files (images, photos, e-mail archives, and who-knows-what-else).
• everything that you discover as you go looking for it days and weeks after the disaster

Business downtime = Dollars and customers lost

Apply all the aforementioned heartache and hassle to an unexpected business disaster.  The latter comes always unexpected and generally in a manner never anticipated. If a tree falls on your building in the middle of the night, a sprinkler system activates because of a small fire in the computer room, your system and your entire business could be “down hard.”

It all becomes a disaster when suddenly you are faced with trying to carry on under altered physical (or electronically challenged) circumstances. The recovery time means loss of income, reduced capability and, worse, customers deserting your sinking ship.

Can you survive?

There are various estimates (and a few urban legends) on how many companies actually go out of business forever because of a disaster. Some estimates are as high as over-90 percent over a two-year period following the disaster.

Your business might fare better if your disaster recovery plan includes the amounts and types of insurance to restore your property and contents to a pre-disaster state. But ask yourself this: Could you run your business without computer network?

Don’t forget about your business data files

What about those irreplaceable proprietary computer data files that your business has relentlessly accumulated over the years? You can restore the applications that run the files, but if the applications have no data to crunch, what then?

So business continuity planning has to include data backup and recovery. The problem with data backup is that everyone agrees it’s necessary, but it has to be automated or it won’t get done. The problem with recovery is if you’re not careful you can end up with a restored system that does not behave the same as it did before you lost all the settings.

101 Digital = BCP

Business continuity planning is one of 101 Digital’s expert services and solutions to keep you running without stumbling should a data loss disaster strike without warning. Contact us and we’ll go over your unique business situation and help you with a plan to keep you in business.