Disaster can strike at any time. And natural disasters aren’t a company’s only
worries. From vandalism to robbery, employee theft to a disgruntled employee
erasing the company’s hard drive, there is a
lot that can go wrong.
Obviously, when disaster does strike, your
business can be negatively affected if you’re
not prepared. Not only that, the longer it
takes you to recover, the less likely it is that
your business will survive.
“Therefore, if you want to maintain the
business’s continuity in the face of any disaster, you need to implement a comprehensive
disaster recovery plan,” says Monty
Ferdowsi, the president of Broadcore.
Smart Business spoke with Ferdowsi
about disaster recovery processes and what
companies can do to implement them.
How should a recovery plan be set up?
You’ll want to have a key person or persons
in charge of the overall plan, but all people
and departments should have some involvement. Your point person or persons will be
responsible for making sure all departments
are involved in providing input and that each
department knows what it needs to do to implement the plan. Then everyone will know
exactly what to do when disaster strikes.
What parts of a business’s telephony infrastructure can be affected by a disaster, power
outage, etc.?
Premise-based PBX phone systems (those
that serve a particular business or office) are
vulnerable to outages and downtime under a
number of different scenarios, including
power outages, malfunctioning parts, humidity, water damage, lack of ventilation, vandalism, sabatoge, hacking and phone line out-ages. In many of those scenarios, the entire
telephony infrastructure could be out of
commission, resulting in inability to make or
receive calls. And if you can’t make or receive
calls, you’re not conducting business.
How can businesses prepare with both on-site and off-site solutions?
Internally, battery backup systems, uninterruptible power sources (UPS), proper ventilation, secured phone closets and proper
service maintenance contracts with phone
vendors can reduce the possibility of out-ages. However, businesses are still exposed
to external, uncontrollable factors, such as
natural disasters, vandalism and hackers.
Utilizing redundant servers (if the PBX
phone system is capable of it) or an off-site
hosted telephony and communications as a
service (CaaS) provider will help reduce or
eliminate the dependency on one, centralized
premise-based telephony platform. In any
case, however, you need to have a disaster
recovery plan in place.
What else can a business do, besides utilizing off-site technologies?
Technology is key, and a good CaaS
provider will save you a lot of time, money
and headaches. Still, you need to be prepared
to handle things on your end. The disaster
recovery plan has to be properly designed
and implemented, and your key personnel
need to utilize the right equipment to successfully recover from any disaster.
No matter what happens — or how bad it is
— you’ve got a business to run. You’ve got
customers, equipment, productivity and your
employees to consider. You have to know
exactly what to do in any situation, down to
the very last detail. Your disaster recovery
plan has to spell out how you are going to
recover, who is responsible for what and
what equipment will be needed.
But, again, remote facilities, redundant
servers and a good CaaS provider will be the
key to a quick recovery time and minimized
disruptions. This will ensure you have the
proper resources in place to press on with
business as usual. Another thing to consider
is the space between your business and the
data recovery facility. In the case of a natural
disaster or catastrophic event, if your business is too close to your backup center, your
backup data system could be destroyed in
the same carnage your business is in.
How can the cost of a backup recovery system be justified in the current economy?
The key thing to consider is value, not cost.
You have to ask yourself: ‘How much time
can my company afford to be shut down?’ If
the answer is hours or minutes, you need a
quality backup system and a comprehensive
disaster recovery plan, no questions asked.
CaaS providers can assist you in putting together a system and plan that will keep your
business constantly running with a minimal
effect on the bottom line. When you look at it,
you really can’t justify not having a backup
system and a disaster recovery plan. The value and peace of mind you’ll get far outweighs
any costs associated with a backup system.
So can a quality backup system and plan
actually save a company money?
Absolutely. If you’re working with a good
CaaS provider who can offer quality service,
and you implement a comprehensive disaster recovery plan, not only will you be prepared for anything, you’ll also consolidate
your servers and storage, leading you to true
virtualization. This will reduce and/or eliminate specific hardware dependencies. Then,
your company will be able to weather any
disaster with little to no loss of data, equipment or revenue streams.
MONTY FERDOWSI is the president of Broadcore. Reach him at (800) 942-4700 or [email protected]. Broadcore is a leading CaaS
provider in the United States.
