Does your business have a proven disaster recovery plan?

By Adam Groff

When disaster strikes your business, it's easy to make mistakes, which can lead to a difficult recovery.

From backing up your business data to recovering data from both cloud and on-site locations, there is plenty of room for error with any backup process.

Here are just a few mistakes your business should avoid when coming up with a disaster recovery plan:

Not Having a Plan B

With the amount of data even the smallest businesses handle on a daily basis, simply having a plan A in terms of disaster recovery just doesn't cut it anymore.

If your business truly wants recovery assurance, then it's important to have a plan B in place.

Many businesses assume that having one backup option is enough to recover from any situation, which isn't the case. Whether it's a security breach, virus, or natural disaster, having multiple backup plans is a wise choice.

For example, if you back your business data up to on-site servers, maybe consider also backing that information up to the cloud.

Backing data up to portable storage devices, such as flash drives and external hard drives, can also provide another level of protection.

Backing up Everything

Although it may sound counterintuitive to the data backup process, backing up all of your data isn't necessarily an effective plan.

On average, only 30 percent to 60 percent of your stored business data needs daily capturing and replication. The rest of that data, such as archived information, only requires occasional backups.

As the article, “What are the most critical mistakes to avoid when developing a disaster recovery plan?” looks at, backing up everything isn't necessarily a critical mistake, however it can turn the recovery process into a major headache.

By backing up everything on a regular basis, not only are you eating up valuable storage space, you're also making it difficult for your IT team to quickly sift through and recover certain files based on necessity.

Backing up only data that changes regularly will help eliminate this time-consuming mistake.

Using a "One and Done" Backup Plan

Data and the storage requirements that go along with it change all the time. As a result, your business should have a disaster recovery plan that evolves right alongside your business.

Chances are your business will increase its data storage load and the type of data it handles as time goes on.

Additionally, business regulations for data storage also change frequently.

Making sure you update your disaster recovery plan on a rolling basis will help your business avoid major issues later down the road.

Not Asking for Help

Disaster recovery is a daunting process and one that shouldn't be tackled alone.

Whether your IT department consists of a large team of people or just one or two staff members, it's important to get your entire business involved in the disaster recovery and data backup process.

Alongside using cloud-based automated backup services, your business should also get employees, department managers, and other network users on the same page when it comes to backing up crucial data regularly.

When disaster recovery goals are the same throughout your organization, the recovery process is that much more streamlined.

If you're looking for a mistake-free backup solution for your business, consider some of the disaster recovery pointers mentioned above.

 

About the Author: Adam Groff is a freelance writer and creator of content. He writes on a variety of topics including business technology and disaster recovery.

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