Is your business protected against the unknown? Could a seemingly small “disaster” wipe out your data or hardware within seconds?
As we’ve noted in the past, most small and medium-sized companies just aren’t prepared for the kinds of power surges, earthquakes, floods, and normal equipment failures that can wipe out all of their stored information almost instantly. If you’re in business long enough, you are almost certainly going to run into an IT emergency eventually. And when it strikes, all the hard work you’ve put into building up your organization or customer base could be lost.
That thought alone is enough to drive a lot of business owners and executives to invest in offsite backup solutions for their most critical files and records. Making that kind of commitment to storing digital assets is important, but it’s not enough. Let’s take a look at why you need to plan a little farther…
Why Traditional Data Backup Isn’t Sufficient
To be clear, you do need a data backup plan in place, and preferably one that involves secure, continuous, and offsite storage of your files. If something happens to your office or facility, you don’t want to see all of your customer records, financial documents, etc., disappear along with your physical hardware.
However, it’s worth thinking things through another step. If all your computers were gone, or if your business location burned to the ground, how long would it take you to get back up and running? Chances are it would be quite a while even if you had current and accessible backup files to work with.
Within the IT industry, we think about these challenges in terms of Recovery Time Objective (or RTO). It simply refers to the process of putting a plan to restore technology into place, and having contingencies that are detailed enough to be able to say – in terms of minutes, hours, or days – how long it would take to restore your company to functionality following a specific type of outage.
RTO might sound complicated, but it’s all about taking the guesswork away when you really need certainty and hard answers. In other words, it gives you an added layer of protection from the unknown that simple data backup can’t.
Putting the Focus on Continuity
When you’ve been in the technology business for as long as we have, you inevitably notice two different things. The first is that all businesses or organizations will eventually be hit with unexpected hardware problems or unforeseeable disasters. Even something as minor as a lightning strike can cripple a business if servers and communications go offline without warning.
The second conclusion is that a little bit of planning and forethought can go a long way. By giving our clients access to cloud technology, ready-to-use emergency workstations, and even device-managed apps, we put them in a position to stay operational no matter what happens. That kind of thinking starts with safe backups that are regularly checked, but it doesn’t end with obvious short-term solutions.
Is Your Business Protected?
If this post has made you realize your data backup and recovery plan isn’t as sturdy as you thought it was, or you simply don’t know whether you’re protected or not, that’s actually a good thing. It means you can take steps to solve the problem before you’re blindsided by unanticipated downtime.
At Fantastic IT, we have practical and affordable solutions to protect companies of all sizes. Why not call us today and see how easy it is to get the continuity plan you need for your technology?
Eventually, you’re going to run into a situation you didn’t expect. You may wake up one morning and find your computers or phones don’t work the way they’re supposed to. Or, it could be that a natural disaster will take your business offline in seconds. We can’t predict the exact scenario, just that you’ll eventually need a plan to bring your business back in a hurry. The only question is whether you’ll be prepared or not when it happens.