Best Practices in Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery

It is vital to be prepared for anything when running a business. The American Management Association reports that half of the companies without a disaster recovery plan that face a major disaster will never reopen. There are a variety of best practices that can allow for business continuity and disaster recovery.
Perform a risk assessment
It can be difficult to deal with disasters if you do not know which ones you may face. A team should gather to create a list of all of the possible disasters or problems that could occur as well as a response for each. For instance, if the company is operating in an area that is vulnerable to hurricanes such as South Florida, then they may designate a location where they can temporarily operate should a hurricane strike. A good plan will also allow the company to take steps to prevent the disaster from being any worse than necessary. For instance, they can purchase hurricane shutters, stay out of flood areas, etc.
Back up, back up, back up
When all of the information of a business is confined to a single space, the company leaves itself vulnerable to a wide array of disasters. Vital information may be lost with one natural disaster. For instance, if you are a retail store that has a list of sales contacts all stored on one computer and a fire occurs, then you may not be able to get all of that information back no matter how well insured you are.
The way you can get around this is simple – back up your data. Not only should you place it in multiple files on multiple computers, but consider having it in an off-site location. There are a number of companies that provide backup services. PC Magazine gives an in-depth analysis of many of the different backup services such as Carbonite, CrashPlan and Nomadesk. The providers range in cost as well as the services that they offer. Of course if you have multiple locations, then you can back up information yourself. Even if you are running a small business out of your garage, you should make a backup by giving a disk to a friend or putting a copy in a vault.
Plan for the worst
It is important to have a specific disaster recovery plan in place should disaster happen. For instance, if a main manufacturing plant got damaged, where could the business operate?
A natural disaster may be unlikely, however changes in the market occur each and every day. It is important to plan for these times. A business may set aside some money so that a small slowdown in sales will not spell catastrophe. A business may consider other products or changes in pricing models as a reaction to change.
Staffing changes
One of the most tumultuous occurrences that can happen is when key personnel leave a company. This may happen without warning. If that one person has all of the information needed for the company to run then the loss of that person can spell disaster.
There are different methods that a company can use to avoid such a problem. First, if at all possible no one person should be vital to the operation of the company. Information should be shared so that the company can run without them. Also, keeping good written records of processes allows the next generation to take over in a smooth transition.
Companies face market problems, natural disasters and other obstacles that threaten them every day. With good practices related to business continuity and disaster recovery, they will hopefully be able to weather the figurative – or literal – storm.