When it comes to disaster planning, business owners have a lot to be concerned about. From floods, hurricanes, tropical storms to electrical fires and employee error – there’s a lot in the air as far as valuable business data and assets go. That’s why having a hurricane and disaster plan is so important. If it’s starting to seem a little cumbersome to manage all of your technology, understand strategically how it can work together and still have a plan for what can happen, you’re not alone. According to YourOrganizedGuide.com 38% of business owners worry about being on-call 24/7 and 41% of business owners say it is taking a toll on their physical health. It’s part of the reason we wrote our recent blog: 3 Ways Business Technology Compromise is Impacting Your Quality of Life. So, while you’re sitting there wondering and stressing, it’s possible that introducing new technology can help you with more than one of these considerations. More and more we’ve seen our clients benefit across the board from cloud migrations. We also think that the cloud can improve your disaster planning concerns significantly – and here’s how:
- No emergency backups, since your data is hosted offsite.
Data recovery and forensics are expensive. It can run into the tens of thousands and even then isn’t a sure thing. Surrounding a hurricane or major storm, one of our top considerations (as outlined in our Hurricane Preparation Checklist) is backup. We recommend a number of backups along the way. Why? 20% of small to medium businesses will suffer a major disaster causing loss of critical data every 5 years. This means that backups are of the essence. But having your data in the Cloud means that when a disaster strikes you don’t need to conduct additional backups – since all of your information will be hosted in the cloud and backed up on a regular basis. You will, of course, want to regularly complete backups of your data hosted in the cloud so that you’re protected, but having one less thing to worry about in the days before a major storm will give you that much less to do.
- Better support for remote locations.
If your business has multiple locations and your main office is subjected to a major disaster, typically your remote locations will suffer in not being able to access your servers if the power is out or if the systems are wiped out. Hosting your data and applications in the cloud means that when disaster strikes, your remote offices won’t be left high and dry without access to data, your business application, e-mail storage and even internet access in some instances. Being able to properly support remote locations in the event of a disaster will save businesses in lost revenue and productivity.
- Seamless communication, regardless of location or circumstance.
Whether your office caught fire and server and equipment went up in smoke or your entire office was swallowed up by a sinkhole – the cloud gives your employees (and you) the flexibility to work from any device and location. That said, if your employees still have internet and device access – they can still work, no matter what is going on at the office. This is huge from a disaster planning perspective, because it ensures the best continuity possible. This is probably one of the top benefits of the cloud: mobility in disasters and almost every other instance.
If you’re struggling to find that balance between budget, technology innovation, risk and disaster planning – it’s probably time to engage a professional to help you understand where you’re at, where you should be and what services you can engage within the budget that you have to get there. Business owners struggle with enough stress as it is. With hurricane season upon us and major weather events happening all the time, it’s time to look at how your business technology should be updated proactively to accommodate for the worst case scenario while also benefitting you from a feature and flexibility perspective.