by Brian Harrison, Peninsula Computer Solutions Ltd. –
When information systems fail, it can be crippling for any business. But every business is unique, and failing to thoroughly assess your situation may lead to adopting a solution that is expensive overkill or cheap and inadequate.
Most IT professionals agree that there is not one failsafe solution to protecting and recovering data.
What are the necessary business precautions you should take to protect critical files and applications in the event of data loss or disaster? Sooner or later, you’re going to experience a hard drive system failure or malware attack, usually when you least expect it.
Here are a few suggestions to help disaster-proof your business.
Conduct an assessment. Know where your customer information and other sensitive data is located. With this knowledge, you can better prioritize what data is secured and backed up should you have to access it.
Work with a trusted partner to disaster-proof data and systems. Use an experienced partner to ensure your backup and disaster recovery solution meets the needs of your business. The goal is to minimize operational impact and risks. Consider both internal and offsite solutions.
Define what an acceptable recovery time is and choose the right storage media. Think about how quickly you need to restore your data; you will pay later if you have to wait for days. Understand how long your business can wait – hours or days – could your business survive?
Create a disaster recovery plan and test it. Have a written disaster recovery plan. It sounds obvious, but it is very easy to forget the most important aspect of disaster recovery: actually writing down a plan. Think through the most likely threats to your business, keeping in mind everything from human error to component failure to natural disaster.
Make sure sensitive data is properly encrypted. To effectively disaster-proof data, it is important to incorporate encryption into the data backup equation. A full-scale backup with encryption of the data at rest and in-transit will prevent unauthorized users from gaining access and effectively minimize exposure. It is the answer for security-conscious organizations which must follow regulatory frameworks to maintain security of sensitive data.
Get proactive: get a professional. Information technology can often be overlooked as we all work to run our business. All too often technology problems arise without warning and the price of lost productivity, production or sales can cost a lot more than putting safeguards in place.
In part two we will continue a few more suggestions to help ensure your business continuity.
For more information visit www.peninsula-computer.com.
