The increasing cybersecurity threats make Information Technology (IT) recovery services a crucial part of any business’s recovery tactics. Your business network and data might be at risk for potential data breach or loss, which is why getting superior protection is a must. Any downtime or loss of data can be costly for any business. 

When your business experiences data loss, it can be a frustrating ordeal if you don’t have an IT disaster recovery plan. In some businesses, a data breach or loss could bring about a significant impact, possibly leading to filing for bankruptcy in only a year after losing data.  

Businesses who were able to plan and establish a concrete IT disaster recovery plan will have a better chance of moving forward even after data loss. Small to medium-sized businesses with a reliable backup and disaster recovery plan can survive costly cybersecurity threats.  

When you have a disaster recovery plan, you can restore your business systems and data. If you want to be ready for any data breach or loss, check for reliable service providers.   These include Boston based IT services companies and other companies that could help get your business up and running in no time.  

If you want to ensure the safety of your business from any threat, here are several tips to consider when building an IT recovery plan. 

  • Hire A Managed IT Service Provider  

When the unexpected happens, a disaster recovery service will make it easier to bring your business back to normal.

By working with a reliable managed IT service provider, IT professionals will ensure your security. They do this by constantly monitoring your business and performing timely solutions when a data breach or hacking attempts occur.  

  • Determine Your Critical Assets 

After an analysis and risk assessment, you need to determine the most crucial systems and data your business needs to operate seamlessly. Once you pinpoint these elements, you’ll have a clear idea of how to create your disaster recovery plan.  

Narrow down all the crucial aspects such as email, workstations, and many more. After making a list of your critical assets, carefully go through them to pinpoint what to prioritize.  

  • Perform Business Analysis And Risk Assessment 

It’s crucial to have a good understanding of all the applications and services in your IT infrastructure. Carefully document the results along with their impact on your business.  

Don’t forget to note down possible risks that might affect these services and applications.  These risks may include a power outage, failure of a storage system or server, and disasters such as fire or flood. Think about mitigation scenarios for these risks along with the associated costs.  

When you conduct an analysis and risk assessment, it’ll serve as a guide in developing a disaster recovery plan suitable for your business. 

  • Understanding The Recovery Time Objective And Recovery Point Objective 

The disaster recovery plan varies for every business, especially the Recovery Point Objective (RPO) and Recovery Time Objective (RTO).  

  • RTO: This is the timeframe a business needs to start its operations to avoid significant losses due to disruptions in the processes. Depending on the business you have, the RTO greatly varies. One company might be on the sidelines for two to three weeks before facing losses, while another might only have a few minutes to experience severe loss. 
  • RPO: It is the amount of time between data backups in which loss can occur from a disaster.  This also varies from one company to another. When you lose all your current data, you need to determine if your business can continue operating using recovered data from a month ago or from the last hour.  

Once you have a complete understanding of the RTO and RPO of your business, it could help you come up with a comprehensive disaster recovery strategy.  

  • Designate A Disaster Recovery Location 

If a data breach or loss occurs, you need an alternative location. It would be best to look for a suitable place to operate your business as part of your disaster recovery plan.  

When you operate your business in various locations, it might be best to designate space in your existing premises as the recovery location. Consider investing in a short-term lease or a local serviced office facility if you’re working from a single site.  

  • Create A Backup Plan 

One of the crucial elements of a disaster recovery plan is to backup data and applications to ensure they’re in a safe location offsite. A good approach is getting both local and cloud backups for your business. 

With local backup, it’s the right option for speed. Recovering data from a local hard drive is a faster process than the cloud. However, local backups are prone to disasters such as fire, flood, and even theft.  Thus, you need a second alternative. 

For cloud backup, it’ll come in handy in case your hard drive malfunctions. A cloud backup is offsite and boasts superior security to thwart cybersecurity threats. Additionally, if your cloud backup gets corrupted, you can readily use the previous version. 

  • Test Your Disaster Recovery Plan 

If you want to make sure your disaster recovery plan works, you need to test it regularly. You need to execute frequent tests to ensure the timely restoration of your systems within the targeted timeframe. Additionally, testing will also provide your employees with the opportunity to practice their disaster recovery roles.  

Remember that things tend to change over time, and it could affect the success of your strategy. By testing your plan, you can pinpoint any inconsistencies and fix them before an unforeseen disaster occurs.  

It’s best to conduct tests quarterly. Try to include some of your common files and ensure efficient recovery and restoration. Although the testing process will put your business operations down for some time, it’s worth the wait. 

Conclusion 

An IT disaster recovery plan is a crucial element for your business and something you shouldn’t take lightly or overlook. If you don’t have one yet, now is probably the time to consider getting one since you’ll never know when a disaster will strike. With a disaster recovery plan in place, it’ll lessen the downtime and resume your business operations as usual.

Also Read: Dr. Fone – A powerful data recovery tool for Android