As Storm Caroline continues to be felt across the UK, the sharp cold spell has meant lots of TV coverage of snow, abandoned cars and airport disruption. It’s a timely reminder to check out your disaster recovery plan and see if it’s and fit for purpose.
In other words – is your business resilient? “Disaster” is a broad term that covers a wide range of events that have the potential to disrupt your business. Weather is an obvious one, but there are also global threats like earthquakes and eruptions that threaten supply chains and have massive effects on UK businesses. And with a recent report from the Aberdeen Group estimating that a day lost has an average cost to businesses like yours of £11,500, it can cost you dearly. Loss includes reputation, cancelled orders, compensation and business moving to better-prepared competition.
At KubeNet, we are frequently asked – and we ask our customers – about IT and infrastructure recovery and risk readiness. With GDPR only six months away, and the recent huge surge in cyber-attacks, it’s a hot topic. Regulatory risk is a high priority and the threat to your business is a real one. A GDPR breach could cost you up to 4% of your turnover. Don’t delay – update or create your disaster recovery plan now.
Here are some areas for you to look at:
Disaster Assessment and Plan
Your plan should look at what the likely activities are that could threaten your business, and detail the steps needed to recover from the likely scenarios. At the moment cyber-attack is a highly likely threat, so you should perhaps prioritise it. Particularly as many recent surveys have shown that a high proportion of businesses have no plan in place at all. The plan should identify what is important and what steps can be taken for rapid fixes and for long term solutions.
Impact Analysis
These days business runs on data and networks. If yours goes down for any reason – power outages, system crash, weather affecting travel, or a hack, how will you cope with no emails, website, systems, or customer information? Businesses that have a plan can take action within minutes or hours have options that could save them time, reputation – and money.
Your People
If your technology fails you need great people and that means well-trained people. Remember that you are not just recovering your IT. You are recovering trust and your people are key to that. Make sure that they are included in the plan, and that they know and understand it. To make sure, run practices and simulations to check out how the plan actually performs in stressful situations.
Technology
Your plan will only be as good as your technology and your cyber resilience. The best way to deal with a cyber-attack is to prevent it, and having up to date technology and infrastructure is more necessary than ever – especially with GDPR regulations looming. For example, have you considered back up services, cloud-based IT and communications? How will you communicate with your customers if your services fail? Don’t wait until it becomes a business affecting problem, act now.
Get Professional help
KubeNet has a range of products and solution that will not only save you costs now, but will also form part of an effective and secure recovery plan. We can work with you to identify the right disaster recovery plans to help you protect your business.
By addressing issues like cyber readiness and disaster planning, you are creating resilience in your business that will give your customers and your people confidence that you are ready for what the world throws at you.
At KubeNet we are ready for Christmas, are you? Get in touch now! Emails us at info@www.kubenet.net or call us on 0344 873 4488!
