How SMBs Can Better Prepare for a Disaster
Within the last month, if you were thinking you weren’t prepared for anything like this before and were left scrambling to figure out a solution for your business to stay open, for employees to work remotely, and everything else you had on your mind…now you might be thinking, “How could we have responded better this time?”
Or, “How can we prepare better for next time?”
In reality, how was anyone to know something like COVID-19 was to happen? But that’s where having a disaster recovery plan comes into play.
No one knows when, how, where, or why a disaster will strike, but we can have a plan with a documented course of action in place to remedy the situation faster and more effectively.
(You can use the links in the table of contents below to skip ahead.)
How SMBs Can Better Prepare for a Disaster
Why It’s Important to Have a Disaster Recovery Plan
There are many reasons as to why you should have a disaster recovery plan.
For starters, just being prepared for the worst-case scenario is a good reason to have a plan as you never know when disaster will strike – and you won’t get a warning before it does either.
Not to mention there are many people that believe disastrous situations just won’t happen to them, so they think they won’t need a plan…ever.
That’s just not reasonable thinking and very risky for yourself, employees, clients, your data, and business reputation. Aside from the worst-case scenarios, many small occurrences can cause downtime, such as one employee opening a malicious email.
That’s all it could take for a hacker to get in and your data to be compromised, and then what? Without a plan in place, you are left to scramble for a solution.
Or what about hardware failure, power loss, software failure, data corruption, security breaches, fires, other natural disasters, and even accidental user error – All of these call for a plan to be in place.
So why else is it important to have a disaster recovery plan?
1. Downtime is Expensive – Your business production is at a halt, but your expenses are not. While you and your employees are at a standstill, costs are still rising. Aside from your direct expenses like labor and resources, think about your indirect costs – such as business opportunities lost due to downtime. It’s difficult to pinpoint exactly how much SMBs lose during downtime because every business has different expenses, but IDC estimates that SMBs lose up to $20,000 per hour of downtime.
2. Cybersecurity – Cyber threats are happening more frequently. In 2018, 62% of businesses experienced phishing and social engineering attacks (Cybint Solutions). As you can expect, that number will continue to rise. For many businesses now their mentality is ‘it’s not if an attack will happen, but rather when an attack will happen.’ So, having a plan in place to recover from an attack should be a top business priority if it isn’t already.
3. Mobility and Flexibility – With the right technology in place, work can get done from virtually anywhere. Without the right technology, this is not the case. If your business is unable to handle remote working then your doors must close in some situations, right. This wouldn’t be the case if you had the right phone systems, laptops or tablets, VPNs, etc. in place to allow for business to operate outside of your office walls.
4. Customer Retention and Increased Reputation – If your business is always experiencing downtime, customers will take notice. This could result in lost business if customers cannot always guarantee you’ll be available for them when they need you. Similarly, 70% of consumers would stop doing business with a company if it experienced a data breach (Gemalto).
5. Increased Employee Productivity – The less time your employees have to wait around for equipment and systems to begin working again is more time they have to spend on productive tasks. In addition to the previous, having a disaster recovery plan that clearly defines communication and role assignments for your employees will ensure everyone is working on the tasks they should be until business returns to normal.
Your Plan
There are key elements to consider when formulating your disaster recovery plan.
Once you have outlined your plan, you should test it to make sure all areas of your business are covered and that the logistics of it all work out accordingly.
Not all businesses have the same functions and operations, so not all plans will look the same. Below are some areas to consider when developing your plan.
RTO or Recovery Time Objective – How fast do you need to recover by? Determining this will help you consider the time, money, and resources needed to fulfill this objective. If it’s 2 hours, you’ll dedicate more efforts to your disaster recovery plan than you would if your RTO was 2 days.
Remote work for employees – How will your employees be able to work from home (WFH)? If not currently able, consider the technology needed for this, if possible. What are the WFH procedures and safety measures? What equipment will they be using to WFH?
Communication and role assignments – Ensuring everyone is on the same page will be vital during this time. So, who will communicate what to certain or all employees? Employees should understand exactly what is expected of them and who should work on tasks related to certain disasters – i.e. redirecting phones, assessing damage, setting up new workstations, etc.
Plan for equipment – If there is a natural disaster like a fire, storm, or flood you need to know how to protect and save your equipment. Different situations will call for different procedures, so document different those different processes.
Backup check – Make sure it’s performing properly, on-site and off-site. You don’t want to lose any more data than you may already have.
Detailed asset inventory – Having this will make it easier if you need to file an insurance claim.
Changes in your supply chain – From pauses, slowed times, no delivery. How will this impact your productivity levels? Order fulfillment and deployment? Etc.
Vendor communication and service restoration plan – Check the service level agreements (SLAs) with each vendor to see if they provide any assistance during disasters. What is every party involved responsible for, if at all?
The Right Technology
In the case of COVID-19, many businesses didn’t have the right technology for their employees to work from home, so they either had to close their doors or spend a hefty upfront cost on updated equipment.
It’s unfortunate for those businesses that had to close their doors simply because of their outdated technology.
Having the right technology to allow remote work is essential now and going forward.
Remember mobility and flexibility are two reasons to have a disaster plan in place.
And again, being prepared is key to success and updating your equipment is a part of being prepared.
You never know when all of a sudden every one of your employees will have to work from home or be out of a job if working from home is not an option due to outdated equipment.
The Benefits of Partnering With an MSP
How can an MSP (Managed Service Provider) be beneficial to your disaster recovery plan?
For starters, BDR (backup & disaster recovery) is a key component of what many MSPs do. From on and off-site backups, automatic backups, deduplication and compression, encryption, and software captures to name a few – MSPs offer data security and peace of mind.
So, how do they play into your disaster and recovery plan?
Since MSPs are skilled in this area they can offer guidance for a response strategy that aligns with your business needs. In addition to offering guidance, an MSP can be your disaster response team too.
Again, having a skilled and dedicated team to getting your systems up and running safely is what MSPs do. You handle your line of business whatever that may be and MSPs handle theirs; protecting and securing your hardware, software, and data.
Conclusion
No matter how you prepare, whether you partner with an MSP or not, being prepared for a disaster of any kind is key to a successful business.
However, just having a disaster recovery plan in place is not enough.
Have you tested it?
Your plan should make sense for your business needs, and along with that, you and your employees should be able to execute the steps laid out in an effective matter.
Even with a BDR plan, there will still be hiccups, but overcoming hiccups is easier than panicking and scrambling to find a complete solution.
