Disaster Recovery Service

You never know when disaster will strike and that is why any business of any size should have a good, solid Disaster Recovery Plan. You don't have to be a Fortune 1000 company with an entire IT staff and you don't have to be the most tech-saavy person or spend a lot of money. Below you will find a list of suggestions that will help anyone get started on creating an efficient and effective Disaster Recovery Plan:


Your Data:

1. Understand what your company's critical data is including accounting, inventory software, email, critical Word or Excel documents, etc.
2. Know where that data is stored and know what needs to be backed up for storage.
3. Know how often the data changes or is updated.
4. Understand the size of the data, so that you are not overly paying for services or wasting time and money on a product or service that is too small to back you up.

Your Plan:

1. Alternative locations such as temporary offices or warehouse space to house your employees, inventories, and computer systems should be found in advance.
2. Make vendor contact information easy to access and keep it handy in a secure off-set location.
3. Think of how you will communicate with your customers, both public and private and make sure you have some sort of database of their contact information ready and available.
4. Keep your employee contact plan and information off-site, as well. Make sure your employees know what to expect.
5. Make sure you have contacted a reliable Computer Rental Firm to know what is available to help you resume normal operations.
6. Keep an off-site collection of a set of usernames, passwords, software key-codes, and access information.
7. Make sure you have copies of software that may not be easily replaced and is specific to your business.
8. Consult with a computer service organization to implement data back-up and a plan for software-installation, data-reinstallation, and other disaster recovery service.

Your Survival:

1. Do not panic. Understand that disasters happen and whether or not you survive will depend on your Disaster Recovery Plan.
2. Remember, data is very important and can make or break you during times of disaster.
3. Never think that a good Disaster Recovery Plan has to be expensive or complex.
4. Act now because disaster can strike at any time.

Computer Service Now - Disaster Recovery

A quick web search for "Disaster Recovery" could leave you feeling defeated. Such websites usually seem to be aimed at big corporations who can afford to spend the money or the super tech-savvy who understand the acronyms, big words, and hard to understand language. Guess what? It does not have to be that way. Disaster recovery is an option for every business, no matter the size or type of company and as a business owner, you should have a plan in place. The following suggestions will help you develop that plan and know how to implement it without spending a lot of time or money.

Part One - Your Data:

Know what date is key to survival. This might include the data in your accounting program, contact management software, your inventory software, email, or critical Word and Excel documents. Know where that data is located and what needs to be backed up. This is critical as is knowing how often that data is changed and updated. You must also understand the size of this data so that you can better understand your data archive options, saving you time and money on various products and services that do not fit your back-up needs.

Part Two - Your Plan:

You should always have a back-up location planned. Temporary offices or warehouse space can house your employees, computers, and inventory in case of a disaster. Keeping vendor contact information in a secure off-site location is a must. This will allow you to pass along special information or new delivery locations to your vendors. Communication is key for your customers, as well. Be sure you are able to maintain contact even in the case of an emergency, be it through email, U.S. mail, or even through a temporary homepage on your website that allows you to let your customers know what is going on. Make your employees know the procedure for the disaster plan and stay in contact with them to help keep things running smoothly.

On the technically side, advance contact with a Computer Rental Firm is key for helping your operations resume once disaster strikes as they can provide your company with office equipment from computers to photo copiers. You should also organize an off-site collection of all of your software media including key-codes, passwords, and user names. Investigate where your critical software came from. If it was custom installed by a professional, a simple trip to the store will not be the same as replacing it with the original. And of course, consulting with a trusted Computer Service Organization will help implement a data backup procedure and a plan for software installation and data re-Installation.

Part Three - Your Survival:

Remember disasters do happen and your survival depends on whether or not you are able to recover effectively with minimum loss. Keep in mind that a solid Disaster Recovery Plan must never be complex or expensive. And don't forget to act now...you never know when a disaster may strike!

Disaster Recovery - Common Sense Solutions

With simple and easy to follow suggestions this article on Data Recovery is designed to help the non technical business owner build a solid foundation of the principles on which a Disaster Recovery plan is built. Concentrating on “Your Data, Your Plan, and Your Survival” this is a must read for anyone who has ever felt overwhelmed by the typical Disaster Recovery articles found in today’s I.T. publications.

With common sense and inexpensive suggestions such as knowing your data, understanding the scope of data you will need to survive a disaster, and encouraging the reader to take action now, the danger of not reading this article is almost equal to that of not having a disaster recovery plan.