One fact of life that enterprises need to be prepared for is that disasters can strike at any time. While system monitoring, security tools or even a weather forecast might provide some advanced notice, there’s no guarantee that there will be time to avoid a calamity. Name and Role at Hyperslice discusses why organisations need a robust approach to disaster recovery (DR) and business continuity (BC) so that they can recover quickly while ensuring operational continuity.
What are Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity?
Disaster recovery involves putting processes and procedures in place so enterprises are prepared for and can recover from unforeseen events. Its focus is on securing the organisation’s IT infrastructure, data and applications. Business continuity has a wider remit, extending beyond IT to cover all aspects of maintaining or quickly resuming business operations, even in the middle of a major disruption. These strategies are vital in keeping the business running during a disaster.
Disaster Recovery solutions
During a disaster, the faster that systems and data can be recovered and accessed, the better. This not only requires advanced technologies but also clear processes and a skilled team capable of carrying out the recovery.
Many modern enterprises need both virtual and physical disaster recovery solutions. Virtual solutions, which are often cloud-based, can provide the rapid deployment, scalability and flexibility needed during a crisis. These include offsite data backups, virtual server replication and cloud-based DRaaS (Disaster Recovery as a Service).
A robust DR plan will also incorporate redundancy, with multiple layers of backup, including physical, virtual and cloud-based solutions. This diversity protects organisations against threats as it balances redundancy with efficiency, thus optimising resources without affecting readiness.
Some organisations also need physical solutions, like backup power systems, offsite data storage facilities and remote recovery sites.
Due to today’s sophisticated cyber threats, integrating cybersecurity into the DR plan has become essential. The last thing any enterprise needs is to become a victim of a cyberattack midway through a recovery – even worse if it means being attacked for a second time. As a result, organisations will require regular security audits, intrusion detection systems and robust firewalls to ensure swift restoration can happen with minimal damage in case such a breach takes place.
Implementing a Business Continuity plan
No two enterprises are identical, so it is vital that a BC plan is tailored to the specific needs of each organisation. This should consider the company’s industry, size and risk profile, as well as disaster recovery and backup solutions, workplace recovery strategies and operational continuity – including ensuring employees can continue working even if the workplace becomes unavailable.
Another key element of business continuity is employee training. Staff need to be able to recognise potential threats, understand disaster procedures and access recovery resources. Regular drills and training sessions can significantly help organisations become more resilient.
The effectiveness of an enterprise’s DR and BC strategies is only as good as the most recent tests. For this reason, regular testing together with updating recovery solutions using the latest technology and best practices is vital for maintaining resilience and readiness.
The future of Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity
As technology advances, it will play a bigger role in DR and BC. Technologies like AI, machine learning and blockchain are already offering new ways to enhance disaster recovery strategies, by providing better predictive capabilities, automating recovery processes and improving data integrity.
Choosing the right solutions provider
Not every organisation has the in-house know-how and capacity to design, implement and maintain appropriate DR and BC strategies. A reliable provider should be able to offer a comprehensive range of solutions that are in line with, and evolve with, the unique needs and challenges of the business.
For larger organisations, enterprise-class service levels are essential for disaster recovery. SLAs should include recovery time objectives (RTOs) and recovery point objectives (RPOs) which stipulate the maximum acceptable downtime and the age of files to be recovered for normal operations to resume.
While comprehensive DR and BC solutions are critical, it is also important to ensure they are cost-effective. A good provider will help enterprises assess their critical functions and prioritise resources so that their DR and BC solutions deliver readiness without being overly expensive.
Working with a partner, like Hyperslice, which can deliver these tailored solutions can be a game changer for enterprises.
Conclusion
Effective disaster recovery and business continuity require a combination of IT solutions backed by enterprise-class service levels and a culture of resilience. Choosing the right solutions provider to design, implement and maintain these strategies is vital for organisations wanting to minimise the impact of disasters on operations and ensure a swift and effective recovery.
For more information, see our Enterprise-Class Security and Continuity Solutions page.
