Disaster
Recovery &
Business
Continuity
Why have Disaster Recovery Plans and Business Continuity Plans?
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It is no longer viable for businesses to be down for extended periods of time. Instant results and demands from your customers to be always on have forced many businesses to abandon the old back up to one location every so often and hope for the best when disaster strikes. Today's vendors have stepped up for Small Businesses and they offer Enterprise level performance at small budgets. It is standard practice to include DRP and BC elements into a backup solution.
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Do I need DRP as well as BCP? What is the difference and what are the impacts?
A DRP is usually a well defined backup and restoration strategy that takes into account the source, destination, method, retention, and scheduling of backups. The options are overwhelming and VBS can advise and assist with the right strategy. With natural disasters or even a pandemic, it is no longer viable to just backup to a local disk at the office. You need to consider access to such resources in case you can't go into the office. You need to consider office closure or road access in case of a city wide problem. Cloud backups remedy these specific scenarios, but you need the right sizing and right options that meet your business goals.
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BCP generally speaking is DRP extrapolated to include not just data storage, but also staff accommodations/relocation, traditional communication failovers (land and cellular), digital communication failovers (email, Teams, Zoom, etc.), emergency callout flowcharts with defined responsibilities and authorities, as well as a well defined PR strategy to inform your clients and vendors of business interruptions. This of course is a very broad topic and best handled by your own execs with input from VBS for the technology pieces.
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What is a typical strategy for a small business?
Local backups that are replicated to the cloud is a common scenario. VBS takes on the role of specifying equipment, software, and services that all integrate into one common goal - the shortest possible downtime in cases of disaster. Even cloud apps require a backup plan. VBS will present you with all the possible solutions and their costs and you decide on the level of protection that suits you best.