Disaster Recovery and the Average SMB
In our previous post, we touched on the alarming trend of SMBs adopting first and planning for catastrophe later. Disaster Recovery (DR) is a crucial component of any company’s tech adoption/maintenance plan, but a surprising number of SMBs seem to have little to no interest in recovery testing.
According to the Search Storage Channel article, two major obstacles reported to be holding SMBs back from performing regular recovery testing is time and effort. Since time and talent are both at a premium at SMBs, these are valid concerns, though disaster preparation is important enough that it’s a worthwhile investment. Compare the damage and potential financial difficulty that a tech disaster could inflict upon your company with the time and energy required to prepare–the latter will pale in comparison. While SMBs haven’t caught up on recovery testing yet, many of those who are ahead of the curve are relying on cloud applications to help keep access to their data open when things get critical.
As noted at Information Week, just taking regular backups of data is not enough. A thorough understanding of the entire process of restoring that data and getting systems functioning again is much more valuable. Practice following these steps, and getting recovery down to a science will make responding to catastrophes much more streamlined, minimizing time lost and damage to the company. Regular inventories of data can help speed up disaster recovery, so creating a map or list of the locations where different types of data are stored ahead of time could save you some major headaches.
Having the time, effort, and talent required for real preparedness all in one place at one time can be a challenge for SMBs, but getting caught without a plan is even worse. If your business can’t have the IT brains in-house, then maybe an external consultancy is in your best interest. An expert can help you take the most efficient approach to creating and implementing a recovery testing plan, and someone on retainer can be there for you in an emergency to help you get through it. Small business owners have a lot on their plates already, so leaving the details to an expert may be the best option.
