There are many types of disasters that can affect a business: fires, floods or even a global pandemic, there are two disaster strategy approaches:

1. Wait for a disaster to hit and then deal with it
OR
2. Plan for different disasters, mitigate against the effects in advance, test your plan and execute it when one hits

One of the services we carry out for our clients is moving them from the first category, to the second, by designing and testing a disaster recovery strategy.

For a particular client, they needed a strategy that would get their IT systems restored within 24 hours even if everything was lost in a fire.

We drafted and implemented a strategy based around Cloud Hyper-V image backups to Microsoft Azure. Then verified it by restoring everything to temporary servers in Microsoft Azure. We timed the process from the first mouse click to the point staff could login remotely. Roughly 17 hours, well within their requirements. The restored system was then tested by several staff members to confirm all data was present and they had everything they needed to carry out their duties.

Do you want to be better prepared?

One of the benefits we provide our managed customers is that we maintain a fleet of disaster recovery (DR) hardware. Not just spare PCs and Monitors but Servers, Firewalls, Switches, Routers and Wireless access points.

Recently this came into its own when a firewall at one of our customer’s sites failed. One of our engineers was able to grab a DR firewall, restore the customer’s backup file, drive to site and get them up and running straight away. No waiting for a replacement.

If you want less down time, in the event of a disaster, contact us

Moved everything to the cloud? It’s tempting to think “I don't need a disaster recovery plan”.

The cloud has risks too. Although more reliable than a server in your office, it’s not 100%. What if Office 365 went down? An extended power cut? An employee maliciously or accidentally deleted all your files?

Without protection against these you're stuffed. Without a plan everyone runs around like headless chickens making the consequences much worse. Without testing you have no idea if it works.

Contact us if you don’t have a disaster recovery plan or haven’t tested it.

Moved everything to the cloud? It’s tempting to think “our servers are no longer a single point of failure, job done!” But what about your internet connection? Isn’t that a single point of failure? And now even more critical..

Even if you have a leased line, they can still fail. The contract with your ISP may entitle you to some compensation but it will in no way compensate you for the damage to your business.

So what do you do? Ideally, you need at least two different ISPs and technologies, e.g. leased line + 4G/5G. And two firewalls that will seamlessly switch over in the event of failure.

If the internet is crucial to your business, and whose isn’t! Contact us about staying online if the worst should happen.