How to Develop an IT Continuity Plan for Your Business
When you don't have an IT business continuity plan and something unexpected happens, you may not be able to continue operating. Unexpected events include bad weather, natural disasters, fires, cyberattacks, human error and accidental damage to the IT network. As well as developing an internal plan, you need a network that is frequently backed up and prepared for recovery with little setbacks. Once you evaluate your IT business plan in terms of continuity risks and points of failure, you can develop a strategy to address IT continuity. You can then be confident that, no matter what happens, you'll be able to continue serving your customers and meeting your obligations.
Combine an IT Business Continuity Plan and Disaster Recovery into an Integrated Strategy
Many of the processes for disaster recovery and IT continuity are similar, and the goals are the same. You can analyze your business, identify core functions and determine how they can be maintained in various scenarios. Basic functions such as personnel and IT are found in all businesses, so it makes sense to involve a supplier with broad business and IT experience early on in the initiative. For Toronto businesses, it makes sense to hire a Toronto IT Managed Service Provider that can make general recommendations on how to proceed while you can add the specifics of your company operations for their consideration. A comprehensive disaster recovery strategy with an IT business continuity plan makes sure all your business functions remain operational.
Designate Key People to Handle Continuity
The first step in your recovery planning is to assemble the team that's going to handle recovery in case your business functions are interrupted. Someone has to identify the problem and activate the appropriate parts of the continuity plan, while others have to execute their parts. Each position has to have designated backup people in case the main person can't be reached. This team can develop the recovery plan they then have to execute if required. The team should work closely with your IT continuity partner, developing a comprehensive plan to address business interruption. For Toronto businesses, most of the development should be done by your IT provider in the Greater Toronto Area, because your own people have other work. Their job as team members is to make sure that the plan works with how you run your business and that they know what to do when the plan is activated.
Identify Core Business Functions and Make Sure They Can Be Carried Out
Your team can work with your Toronto IT continuity supplier to make sure all your core business functions are covered by the plan. Many companies have adopted a mixed approach in which some functions are carried out in-house with local data storage while other functions have been migrated to the cloud. Your plan has to make sure your employees will have remote access to the cloud functions if business at your main office is interrupted. Your IT supplier has to provide backups for the local storage and be able to give employees access to the backed-up data from home or from an alternate work location. While you have to decide how current your backups have to be and how quickly employees have to recover access, your IT provider is best situated to determine exactly how the backups are activated to serve as the primary data source and how employees are best given access.
Select a Qualified Supplier to Help You with Your Recovery Plan
Addressing disaster recovery with an integrated IT business continuity plan takes expertise and involves a lot of work. Using existing employees wastes time and keeps them from doing their normal work. Hiring a company like Haycor Computer Solutions that's experienced in disaster recovery will let you put an effective plan in place at a reasonable cost.
