Can you really afford not to have a backup plan?

Microtrading

According to Symantec (one of the worlds leading IT security vendors), 50% of small-to-midsize businesses (SMBs) admit to having no backup and disaster recovery plan in place.

41% of those surveyed confessed that they had never even given much thought to implementing a disaster recovery or business continuity plan.

If you are one of them, then you really need to think about whether you can afford to maintain the status quo.

Answering these questions will help you understand if you are needlessly bleeding money every day by subjecting your business to avoidable downtime and forcing your customers to look elsewhere.

After all, as Benjamin Franklin once said "by failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail".

1. How often is employee productivity and/or customer service negatively impacted each day from a downed network or system?

2. How much downtime can your business truly afford and what are the work-around's you have in place when systems are unavailable?

3. What level of IT support can be accessed? Can it be accessed quickly enough to minimise damage? Are you confident that your business can either be back online or be able to access lost data with minimal disruption, no matter what?

4. How often is your most critical data frequently backed up? Do you or your staff have company data on their personal laptops, iPads or mobile devices and if so is this backed up?

Are all backups stored in a location off-site and quickly accessible in the event of theft, fire or flooding?

Are you using any custom installed software and is the supplier still in business should this software need to be re-installed or updated?

Are account details, licensing agreements, and security settings somewhere on record, and is it duplicated off-site?

5. Are your systems truly protected from theft, hackers, and viruses?

Are passwords to sensitive data changed whenever employees leave the company?

6. When was the last time you tested backup processes to ensure they are working properly?

How quickly was your business back up and running as normal?

If you are an SMB, you don’t have to fear technology failure.

A trusted Managed Service Provider (MSP) can help you resolve these challenges in a more effective and efficient manner.

Contact us on 0121 784 0077 for further information and help on how best to protect your business.