While nobody wants to think about the worst happening to their business, it’s important to have a plan in place just in case; knowing that you have already worked out exactly how to recover your data and continue to trade can make it drastically easier to cope in a crisis. It’s surprising, then, to learn that many businesses do not have a disaster recovery plan in place.

IT services are the backbone of many businesses; your office computers and servers often hold all your emails, all your data and all your systems. Imagine, then, what business issues you might face if you were to reach your office on a Monday morning to find it underneath three feet of water? The recent floods throughout the country have served to highlight this danger for many people – homes and businesses alike have been devastated by the deluge, and this is not the only potential risk to consider. A flood, fire or theft in your office could leave equipment unusable and data inaccessible, unless you have a proper disaster recovery plan in place.

There are three basic components to a disaster recovery plan; preventative measures, detection measures, and corrective measures.

Preventative measures are aimed at preventing or mitigating a potential disaster; while there are limited measures that you can take to prevent natural disasters such as fires or floods, there are certainly actions that you can take to mitigate their impact. Regular backups of your data to a secure offsite location will ensure that, even if your servers are completely unusable, you still have access to your business data, and will be able to resume trading at a temporary location until you can get back into your office.

Detection measures are designed to identify disasters and threats quickly in order to allow a prompt response. Such measures may include network monitoring, which will allow your IT support services to go into action as soon as a problem occurs, thereby minimising your potential downtime.

Corrective measures are those which are aimed at getting you back on your feet after an incident, should the worst happen – ensuring that the disaster recovery plan itself is in place, and that the relevant parties know how to access critical documents and data, are both vital parts of this.

Here at Tristar IT Support, we offer a range of IT support services in London, including disaster recovery options to help you be prepared for the worst. It may never happen – and we certainly hope that it won’t – but if it does, you’ll be glad to have a plan in place.