Backup And Disaster Recovery Plan
‍For Small Business

If you are a digitally active business and you hold data across multiple applications it is essential you look toward a recovery plan just in case you encounter data loss. Whether it’s accidental deletion, cyber attack or natural disaster, data loss can be costly and hard to recover from without a plan in place.

What is it?

Backup and Disaster Recovery is essential if you’re a business owner / manager and you have probably thought about it a lot if you haven’t already got something in place…”what if the roof caves in and our equipment is destroyed?” or “what if someone accidentally deleted our files?”

The most basic implementation is a combination of ‘Cloud Backup’ and ‘Disaster Recovery’ solutions that are designed to work as partners in helping you get back to normal operating functionality after a data loss or disaster situation. They ensure uptime and allow you to work again from any location you need to, let’s face it, we don’t know if one day, heaven forbid, your office could burn down or a cyber criminal may target your business.

There has been increasing data loss across small to medium enterprises over the past few years and it doesn’t seem to be slowing. Most can be as simple as someone accidentally deleting an important file or folder and it going unnoticed until it’s needed a week later, this is very annoying! Data loss goes hand in hand with financial loss and it doesn’t just come from loss of business, the information Commissioners Office could be breathing down your neck too.

Now, I know this all seems doom and gloom but in reality, having a plan in place is a preventative measure,

similar to insurance, we don’t want to use it but having it there is really useful.

Businesses that don’t have a BDR solution / plan in place is usually down to them not fully understanding it’s value. Some of the top benefits of having something in place is so important for protecting any business.

1. Protects against natural disasters: Flood, earthquakes, tornados (as we see here now), and other extreme natural disasters are uncontrollable circumstances that cause data loss. A backup solution creates a geographically unrestricted copy of your data. Restore to a new device and you’re away working again from your new location.

2. Keeps client data safe: Confidential customer data held by your business could be compromised by cyber criminals, a data backup will allow you to keep an encrypted copy of this data that is only accessible by your vetted staff.

3. Devices break: Your server may have run well for the past 3 – 5 years but it won’t last forever, if you have a cloud backup you can restore to the new device and continue working, not having this could mean having to pay for a broken hard drive recovery which could cost thousands.

4. People make mistakes: Your employees are probably the most common reason data gets lost, it’s so easy to delete a folder accidentally. None tech savvy staff may even try to cover this up by not saying anything which then leaves the whole business in a mess if the data that was lost is used by everyone. Having a cloud backup allows you to simply restore your deleted data instantly.

What are your requirements?

Once deciding to go for a BDR solution, what do you need to look for when selecting a provider? Every business is different, but start by checking the following:

Hardware compatibility: Does their software work on the device you wish to backup? This could be a Windows 2012 server with SQL or a simple file backup from your PC, whatever it is, you should ask if it’s supported. If you are unsure, ASK!

Pricing: Does the pricing of their solution fit your needs? Do they charge per device or do they charge for total storage? Every providers charges are different, but make sure their pricing works for your growing data. What it is right now may change which means price increases as your data grows or you add devices. Avoid nasty surprises, and again, if you are unsure, ASK!

Support: Will they be available when you need support, ask if they have an out of hours service and assisted services. You want to be able to recover any time of the day.

Reputation is important: ask for recommendations from other businesses, speak to multiple vendors and make sure you are comfortable with them before committing.

A final note from us; there is no way of preventing a disaster situation from ever happening but having a recovery plan in place will get you back on your feet to fight another day.

If you would like to speak to Cloud Dolphin to see what Backup and Disaster recovery options we have available for your business, call of email today.

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