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Is Your Disaster Recovery Plan Ready for 2016?

Tristan Anwyn

December 22, 2015

Do you have a disaster recovery plan for 2016?

No one wants to think about disaster befalling their small business, but formulating a plan just in case could be vital to your business' survival.

Having a plan means that should the worst happen, you will be as well placed as possible to recover and get your business up and running again.

So just how can you formulate the ideal disaster recovery plan for your business?

What Could Go Wrong?

The trick to formulating an effective disaster recovery plan is to know what exactly it is that you might need to recover from. 

It's easy to think that disaster recovery just means preventing data loss in the event of a computer crash or virus. While that can be an important part of disaster recovery planning, it's not all there is to it by any means.

A disaster is anything that could prevent you from carrying out your core business practices and delivering your products and services.

That might include:

• Hardware or software failure;
• Network problems;
• Natural disasters such as floods and fires;
• Damage to premises;
• Loss of property;
• Data loss;
• Power cuts.

Having a thorough understanding of what could go wrong will help you plan for it.

Understand Your Core Needs

Understanding your core needs means having a thorough overview of what exactly your business would need to get up and running as quickly as possible in the event of a disaster. 

What do you do and use on a daily basis that is absolutely essential for meeting orders and carrying out your core tasks?

Now plan how you would get those things back online as fast as possible should a disaster occur.

Keep Off-Site Backups

The article "5 Tips for Developing a Disaster Recovery Plan" suggests keeping off site and physical records of vendor contacts, contracts, licenses, and serial numbers and so on. That way, you'll have access to all the information you need to reboot your business.

Be sure to include support desk numbers for all your vendors, so you can call in their support and expertise to help you get back on track. 

Establish Responsibility

Establishing responsibility is key to the success of your disaster recovery plan. Your team should be in no doubt as to what needs doing - and who is responsible for doing it.

By assigning a specific person for each necessary task, you ensure that nothing is left undone because everyone assumed that someone else would take care of it.

Your list of responsibilities should also include who to contact for each type of eventuality, so your team knows who to alert the moment disaster strikes.

Build an Emergency Kit

Think about what your workers will need if they're stranded, or if they need to be on site following a disaster. Their needs will vary depending on the nature of the disaster - a server crash is very different from a blizzard - so plan as widely as you can.

Think about items such as backup power supplies, warm clothing, snacks, flashlights and clean water.

Once you've drawn up your disaster recovery plan, make sure all staff has a copy. Your plan should include detailed instructions for your team; giving them a guide to turn to if the worst happens.

Start building your disaster recovery plan now to keep your small business safe through 2016 and beyond.

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