Disaster Recovery for Small Businesses

As companies of all sizes depend more on technology to complete their daily tasks, that dependency can increase the risk of, and severity of, an outage in the event of a natural disaster.

Looking at the headlines, it doesn’t take long to see how floods, fires, hurricanes, or other types of disasters can disrupt the operation of a small company. While technology can play a crucial role in helping a company restore normal operations quickly, that restoration often depends on being able to access and take advantage of your company’s tech tools.

For most small businesses, mobility and cloud computing play a more significant role in normal operations and disaster recovery plans.

Preparing for technical disaster involves two critical steps:

• Working to prevent tech-related problems, and
• Forecasting how the company will respond if operations are disrupted.

For many companies, being able to respond quickly is a major factor in determining how well, or even if, they survive an extended disruption. Depending on your location, for example, your primary business continuity risk may come from hurricanes, earthquakes, wildfires, floods, or other disasters. Regardless of the risk or location, planning how your company would respond if the worst occurred is essential.

In a workplace emergency, the safety of employees and customers is always the number one consideration. Smoke detectors, evacuation plans, regular safety drills, and a posted list of emergency phone numbers are essential in preventing or reacting to a crisis.

Protecting your data is another important priority. Because natural disasters can affect a large geographic region, one of the most important aspects of business recovery planning is ensuring critical data is not stored in one location. The most effective approach for small business owners is using a cloud-based service that encrypts information and transfers it automatically to secure data centers.

It’s also essential to ensure the smartphones and tablets your company uses routinely are backed up since they often play a common role in accessing and creating data, just as your company’s laptops do. Mobile devices have automated backup features as part of their operating systems; taking advantage of those capabilities is important.

You should also discuss your company’s disaster planning needs with your insurance professional to develop industry-specific risk management strategies.