Have you ever thought about how much your company relies on technology for basic processes? The Crowdstrike-Microsoft outage in July 2024 grounded planes, made internet banking unusable, and even forced doctors to cancel surgeries.
Pretty grim, right?
You might think that this can only happen to large companies but that’s not true. In fact, SMBs rely on technology just as much as large corporations.
For an SMB, a disaster — whether it’s a natural calamity, cyber-attack, or hardware failure — can lead to significant data loss, operational disruption, and financial setbacks. You can read more about disasters and their impact on businesses here.
This is where disaster recovery planning comes into play, ensuring that businesses can bounce back quickly and continue to serve their customers without prolonged interruptions.
A robust disaster recovery plan is not just an IT concern but a critical component of overall business resilience. What about you? Do you have a disaster recovery plan?
If not, let’s see why you should and how to put one together.
Why Does Your SMB Need a Disaster Recovery Plan?
Most disasters are out of your control — natural disasters and cyber-attacks are good examples here. No one would choose to have them happen to their business. Being resilient in the face of a disaster, on the other hand, is within your control.
Here’s how disaster recovery planning can help you:
1. Minimize Downtime and Data Loss
The primary goal of a disaster recovery plan is to minimize downtime and data loss. For SMBs, even a few hours of downtime can lead to significant revenue loss and damage to customer trust.
An effective disaster recovery strategy ensures that critical data is backed up and systems can be restored quickly, reducing the impact on business operations.
2. Protect Customer Trust
Customers expect reliability. In the event of a disaster, businesses that can quickly recover and continue operations without significant delays maintain higher levels of customer trust and satisfaction.
On the other hand, prolonged downtime or data breaches can erode customer confidence and drive them to competitors.
3. Compliance and Legal Requirements
Many industries (financial institutions and health providers, for instance) have regulatory requirements mandating robust data protection and disaster recovery plans.
Failing to comply with these regulations can result in hefty fines and legal repercussions. A well-documented disaster recovery plan ensures that your business meets these compliance standards and avoids potential legal issues.
4. Avoid a Disastrous Financial Impact
The financial impact of a disaster can be devastating for SMBs. 60% of businesses that experience major data loss never recover and eventually shut down.
Investing in disaster recovery planning is a proactive measure to safeguard the financial health of your business and even to keep your business afloat.
Does a disaster recovery plan sound too complex for your SMB? Worry not, you shouldn’t tackle it alone. In fact, your data center should play a major role in it.
What to Demand from Your Data Center for Disaster Recovery
Not all data centers are built alike. However, when it comes to disaster recovery, they should be your ally, not a weak point.
Data centers play a crucial role in the disaster recovery strategies of SMBs. Here’s how:
Redundancy and Data Backup
Your data center should offer robust solutions for data redundancy and backup. Read more about the importance of redundancy in data centers and how we ensure it at Heartland Technology.
Enhanced Security
Security should be a top priority for your data centers. Before moving your data to a data center, make sure that they implement advanced security measures, including physical security, cybersecurity protocols, and regular security audits.
Fast Support and an On-Site Team of Experts Available 24/7
When a disaster happens, your most limited resource is time. You need your data center on your side, answering your calls as fast as possible and working with you to remedy the situation.
If you’re thinking about moving to a new data center, make sure to test their responsiveness!
As important as they are for security and business continuity, data centers can only do so much for you in case of a disaster. You need your own disaster recovery plan, so let’s find out how you can create it.
How to Build a Disaster Recovery Plan from Scratch
Creating a disaster recovery plan may seem daunting, but breaking it down into manageable steps can make the process more straightforward.
Here are the basic components to consider:
1. Risk Assessment and Business Impact Analysis (BIA)
Start by identifying potential risks that could impact your business. These could include natural disasters (e.g., floods, earthquakes), cyber-attacks, hardware failures, or human errors.
Now let’s look at the impact these could have on your business. Identify critical business functions and the potential cost of downtime for each function. This analysis will help prioritize recovery efforts.
For example, you may need quick access to your client database or the recovery of your website. Before a disaster happens, you should know which of the two takes priority.
2. Establish Recovery Objectives
Your recovery objectives should be centered around two things:
- Recovery Time Objective (RTO): Define the maximum acceptable amount of time that your business can survive without critical systems and data. This will help you set timelines for recovery efforts.
- Recovery Point Objective (RPO): Determine the maximum acceptable amount of data loss measured in time. For example, if your RPO is four hours, your backups should be no older than four hours at any time.
3. Develop a Data Backup Strategy
There are two ways to implement a data backup strategy and we recommend using them both:
- Regular Backups: Make sure that your data is backed up regularly, based on the RPO. Automated backup solutions can help maintain consistency and reduce human error.
- Offsite Storage: Store backups in a secure, offsite location. Check out our colocation services for offsite storage, ideal if you need physical access to your data in the Midwest.
4. Create a Communication Plan
In the event of a disaster, clear and timely communication is essential. Develop a communication plan that includes:
- Internal Communication: Notify employees about the disaster, provide instructions on steps to take, and keep them informed about recovery progress.
- External Communication: Inform customers, partners, and stakeholders about the situation and expected recovery timelines. Transparency can help maintain trust during a crisis.
5. Test and Update the Plan
Technology moves fast, which means that any disaster recovery plan that’s older than a year is usually obsolete. Update the plan regularly to make sure that it reflects your current infrastructure and business priorities.
Also, conduct drills and simulations to identify any weaknesses or areas for improvement.
Wrapping Things Up
Think of disaster recovery planning as an insurance policy: you prefer not to use it, but it can save your life when you need it. We know it’s not pleasant to plan for a disaster but we also know that proper planning can save your business — we’ve seen it happen countless times.
Need help with your disaster recovery planning? Curious about how Heartland Technology’s data center helps clients recover their data fast and avoid losses? Reach out, we’d love to help mitigate risks to your business.