e-skills UK Guide

Disaster recovery and your business IT

Disaster Recovery and your business IT

Unfortunately disaster can strike at any time. The media are often full of reports of local disasters and graphical images on television of floods and fires. Those directly involved are often faced with the complete loss of their homes as well as their livelihoods and it may take some people many years to get back on their feet.

From a business perspective disasters that strike may not be quite so dramatic but can still have a terrible local effect, for example:

•   A mains water supply fails and floods your office
•   Your house catches fire, taking with it your home office
•   The industrial unit next to you has a fire which engulfs your premises as well
•   All of your computer equipment is stolen one night
•   You get a catastrophic computer virus that destroys your network and computers

All of these are disasters in their own right. Not all of them would make the TV news but for those involved the effect is the same – the business cannot carry on trading and there could be catastrophic loss of business data.

Of course proper disaster management involves more than Information Technology issues and needs to cover other areas including people, premises, PR, supply chains and partner relationships. These other topics are outside the scope of this Business IT Guide but readers are advised to investigate disaster recovery issues in these areas. We have included some links that may help.

By preparing for any disaster you will save both money and time for your business.

Planning for Disaster

Many large businesses have sophisticated plans to relocate thousands of employees and their associated support systems to new offices within hours of disaster striking. They spend a lot of time and money providing additional computer systems that contain copies of ongoing work that can be brought on line quickly in the event of a problem.

In smaller businesses we don’t have such luxuries but the planning process is just the same, albeit on a smaller scale. To start the process have a think about the following:

•   What IT systems are critical to your business?
•   What systems could you manage without?
•   How long could you trade for if you lost your critical IT systems?
•   How will you keep running the business if you lost our office facility?

Business continuity management is not that difficult. Just think through some of the issues you may face and put them into perspective based on the likelihood of an incident. For example if you live on top of a hill you may not be flooded but your home office may be damaged due to high winds. Ultimately the same problem needs addressing – how can you continue to trade with limited or no IT systems?

Documenting your recovery plan is important. Remember to keep a copy in a printed format safe and secure from the main business but available to all key team members.

The importance of IT Backups

If there is one simple lesson that needs to be learnt from this guide it is the importance of computer backups. A backup is a comprehensive copy of your computer data that can be restored (i.e. re-loaded) in the event of your computer systems failing. By restoring backed up data you can carry on operating your IT systems as if nothing has happened, from the point in time that the backup was taken.

In summary:

• Always backup your critical data on a regular basis. Think how much data you are prepared to lose – 1 hour? 1 day? 1 week? This will give you a guide as to how frequently you should back up your data.

• Always check that you can restore from backed up data. Practice restoring data so in the event of an emergency you are able to cope with the additional pressure.

• Always keep your backed-up data secure and off site. If you have premises then take the backup home with you. If you work from home then place the backup somewhere safe and secure away from the home office.

• Keep your original software and licence keys safe and secure

We cover backups in more detail in this guide:

Backing Up Data

In the event of a Disaster

First, do not panic. After all you have planned for this and have decent backups ready to be deployed. Of course disasters will vary in magnitude but the same process of ensuring the safety of you and your team would always take priority over any IT system recovery. Assuming that you are all safe and well you need to start the business recovery phase.

Access your recovery plan, sit down and think through the actions you need to take.

From an IT perspective you may need to configure new computers before restoring your backed up data. This can be complicated so getting help from a local expert may be advisable. Assuming you have the original software and backups available then this should not take too long. The precise steps to achieve this are outside the scope of this guide as they can be quite involved but followed logically are not too difficult.

You may need to consider a communications plan to customers, suppliers and partners so they are aware of your situation and hear it from you rather than the local papers. Done correctly you may be surprised at the level of support you receive.

Disaster planning need not be difficult and it follows best business practice of being prepared to deal with unforeseen circumstances.

Further resources which may help include the following:

•   HM Government Preparing for Emergencies

•   Business Continuity Institute

•   CPNI