Human Error

People make mistakes. That’s simply a fact of life, and expecting perfection from your employees at all times isn’t practical. When it comes to your important business data, human error can be a natural disaster of its own. Whether they accidentally (or purposely) delete files or click on a malicious link, your critical data can be permanently compromised if you don’t have a plan. It might be a single file that contains important information, or a complete shutdown of your business.

Did you know that 70% of data center problems are a result of human error? That’s according to The Uptime Institute. The great news for us humans is we haven’t been completely replaced with Artificial Intelligence and robots. The bad news is, any business that isn’t purely robot-run is at risk. When and if human error afflicts your business, there will be no advanced notice or warning signs, so you’d better have a plan now.

What can you do?

• Have a backup that will allow you to quickly restore data and systems the moment BEFORE the issue happens
• Your plan only works if everyone understands it and is on board. Train your employees on how to avoid errors and what to do in the event of an error
• Make sure you have the IT failover you need to ensure process continuity after a disaster

Building Fire

Even a small fire incident can have a huge impact on your business. A large fire can disrupt your business permanently, but it doesn’t have to. Whatever the fire doesn’t damage can be damaged by the efforts to extinguish the fire, such as flooding from overhead sprinklers. This can affect your paper files, computers, telephone systems, and much more. Did you know there are approximately 100,000 commercial building fires in the US per year according to the National Fire Protection Association? Manufacturing facilities and offices located near restaurants can be at the highest risk; however any building can experience an unexpected fire.

What can you do?

• Maintain a continuous off-site backup
• Have a plan for re-routing calls
• Think about where you could temporarily move your operations, or create a remote work plan
• Determine how you would communicate internally to update your employees
• Make sure your business is properly insured in case of fire
• Make sure smoke detectors are installed and working so employees can be warned to evacuate the building

Flooding

Floods in your office can be the result of extreme rains, flash floods, and even issues with plumbing. No matter what the cause, they can cause significant interruption to your business processes. They typically have the worse impact on ground-floor offices. Flooding can cause power outages, loss of communications, damaged paper files, and blocked access to your facility.

What can you do?

• Pay attention to National Weather Service alerts. This can give your business 24 or more hours to prepare
• Ground-floor offices should take care not to place computers and filing cabinets directly on the floor
• Maintain a continuous off-site backup
• Have a plan for an alternate work site in the event that your building is temporarily unusable
• Discourage employees from traveling to work after a flood alert has been given
• Flooding is not covered in insurance policies by default. Consider adding flood coverage to your policy

Extreme Storms

Your business doesn’t have to be located in a tornado or hurricane-prone area to be affected by extreme storms. In fact, in 2020 Utah experienced a wind storm with gusts as high as 100mph. Thousands of trees were toppled, structures were damaged, and more than 100,000 people and businesses were left without power, some for several days. Extreme weather can happen anywhere, so it’s important to prepare for that possibility.

What can you do?

• Pay attention to National Weather Service storm warnings so you can prepare in advance
• Maintain a continuous off-site backup of data
• Have failover IT infrastructure available either in the cloud, or an alternate facility
• Make sure you have the ability to re-route calls as needed
• Discourage employees from traveling to or from the office in extreme weather conditions
• Make sure your business is properly insured

Of course there are many worst-case scenarios to consider when making your business continuity plan; but following the advice outlined in this article can help protect your business from many types of disasters. Les Olson Company can help you create a plan and get the right technology in place to gracefully deal with disasters.[/cz_title]

Disaster Recovery Plan…Why?

For every business, success is earned and built through careful planning and smart decision making. It’s only natural that you’d want to safeguard your business from danger as you plan for your future. In today’s always-on, digital world, one of the most critical factors to business success is data, and studies show time after time that data loss can be the demise of a business. The costs and risks associated with downtime are substantial, and the damage to your business’ brand and reputation are immeasurable.

While there’s no way to predict the future, Murphy’s Law tells us anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. If you don’t have a well-thought out recovery plan, your company’s data is teetering on the edge of a cliff without a safety net. Here are some scenarios where a fully-managed Disaster Recovery Plan could save your business:

User Error

We all make mistakes, like accidentally clicking a malicious link, dropping our computers, misplacing a mobile device, or deleting something we intended to save. User error was cited as the leading cause of data loss in a 2015 Databarracks survey.

Hardware Failure

Hard drives, servers, computers, and other devices have varying life expectancies and refresh cycles, but hardware often fails. Whether it’s due to normal wear and tear, defects, or the unexplainable – businesses need to be prepared for the worst.

File Corruption & Software Failure

Software will also occasionally fail. Files and data can become corrupted and things may be deleted without warning. In addition to providing complete restores for entire machines, Disaster Recovery Solutions allow for data recovery.

Natural Disasters and Extreme Weather

Small businesses lose an average of $3,000 per day after closing due to a major weather event. It’s impossible to predict when such an event will strike and the resulting power outages, flooding, and other issues they will create.

Insider Threats

If a disgruntled employee were to intentionally encrypt, delete, steal, or corrupt sensitive information; having your data backed up ensures that it can be recovered and restored to help mitigate damage to your business.

Cybercrime

Viruses, malware and cybercrime (especially ransomware) are an increasingly dangerous threat today. The Ponemon Institute’s 2015 Cost of Cyber Crime Report claims that businesses sampled saw an average of 160 successful cyber-attacks per week.

The Solution:

Adding a Disaster Recovery Solution and implementing a Disaster Recovery plan can protect your business from the risks associated with data loss, however not all solutions are created equal. It’s important to have a backup and disaster recovery solution that provides benefits beyond file restoration.

Be Prepared for Any Disaster

Having a Disaster Recovery Solution is a good idea, but an actual data-loss event is not the time to use it for the first time. Additionally, not all disaster recovery efforts are the same. For example, recovery from a natural disaster like fire or flood can differ from a cybersecurity attack or a user error.

It’s important to simulate coordinated disaster recovery scenarios to ensure all the necessary technology is in place, personnel is trained, procedures are in place, and data is restored as fast as possible.

Cost Savings

In a worst-case scenario, the speed at which you can restore business continuity (a term commonly used for maintaining online systems, data and functionality) determines the magnitude of financial loss. Advancements in cloud technology offer small businesses an unprecedented opportunity to tap into resources that were once only available to large enterprise organizations. Cloud-based storage can help businesses drastically reduce the cost of data replication, offsite storage, and more.

In the event of a disaster, you can spin up virtual servers in the cloud to get your business back online in hours instead of days, mitigating your financial loss. The most current backup of your system will always be available – allowing you to get back to business, drive revenue, and restore employee productivity.

Peace of Mind

Just like any other technology, a Disaster Recovery Solution can only be effective if it is maintained, and unfortunately many solutions on the market are implemented and subsequently abandoned. Your solution should be supported by a team of technicians that constantly check to ensure your industry-standard, AES-256 encrypted data backups are verified – so that they will always be reliable, and available to use in the event of downtime.

In the end, backup and disaster recovery is about peace of mind. Hardware fails, employees make mistakes, security breaches are on the rise, and natural disasters are unavoidable; even in the face of unpredictable events, you can rest assured that you have a reliable solution and a reliable team in place at all times with a Disaster Recovery Solution from Les Olson Company. Knowing your business’ data can survive all of the above with the help of our team can enable you to confidently move your business successfully forward.[/cz_title]