Sometimes unplanned events can have disastrous consequences for your business. Real-world disasters, natural disasters, fires, cyber-attacks, network disruptions and human error are all threats to business continuity. Without a plan in place, your business will grind to a halt, not only resulting in loss of revenue, but also the potential for suffering reputational damage with clients which can be very difficult to come back from.
Recent studies have revealed that…
43%
of businesses that suffer major outages never truly recover.
51%
of businesses close within two years.
6%
survive and go onto function successfully.
Common technology services designed for business continuity consist of cloud data backups, cloud-based disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS) for infrastructure outages, and managed security plans that protect against increasingly sophisticated cyber-attacks. We implement these and work on them with you to ensure that you are prepared for the worst, so that you can bounce back like the best.
Our approach to business continuity is comprised of three main steps:
Business Impact Analysis
This will reveal the data and functions your organisation cannot survive without. It will also show how long you can survive whilst down —in other words— what period of downtime is acceptable.
Two key metrics you’ll need to determine are Real-Time Objective and Real Point Objective.
Risk Assessment
This will identify potential points of failure. For example, if your data is stored in only one location and that location fails, you’ll lose your data. Or, if your entire network relies on critical hardware, what happens when it goes bang?
Manage Your Risks
Once you’ve identified the risks, you must manage them. Do you want the data to live in-house, in a highly redundant data centre facility, or maybe both? Ensure that your data is regularly backed up and test your ability to recover from a disaster by running scheduled tests.