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Disaster Planning

Disaster Planning with is not an activity we always do or refresh regularly. It is much more fun to follow the things in life we enjoy. We tend to approach enjoyable activities with enthusiasm. Throwing a successful event for a group of friends elevates our position within our pier group and makes us stand out from the rest. When it comes to thinking about bad – nasty events we tend to place our head firmly in the sand and either ignore it or abdicate it to someone else releasing ownership completely.

Data backup and data restore with Altaro , we find, is one of those areas where clients and prospects alike pay little or no attention to the detail. Companies blindly backup data, or so they believe, day in – day out but what they do not do is confirm or check the resultant task. A data backup is only of value until you wish to restore. If no checks have been made come the day when data must be retrieved it could be a return to day zero. Frightening.

In business we need to treat the positives and negatives the same. When we win that deal or complete that project we lament about it through social media, white papers and blog posts. There is nothing wrong with this and we all should celebrate our victories however sometimes things go wrong but it is how we deal with the wrong that matters. Business Continuity planning is something we should celebrate and be open with suppliers and clients alike to demonstrate how we as a business approach the way we deal with you and your information in a responsible manner. Demonstrating this will also elevate our position within our business pier group and differentiate us to competitors.

Hope for the best prepare for the worst – Roger L’Estrange

Our approach

At Computer Network Services Ltd part of our disaster planning we look at how we store client data and in what format. This can be the last letter we wrote to a client, specific network configurations or system backups. The important aspect here is that there is no single point of failure or processes which result in extended time frames to access tier 1 information. Enabling us to retrieve critical services back on-line in the shortest time frame possible. Some information is stored in basic text files. This enables us to view the information in various applications and agnostic to operating systems. Obviously we are careful what information is held in such an insecure way and we may obfuscate the information via shorthand or encrypt in a manner in which we understand and use internally. The important thing is that the information is available and accessible quickly and efficiently.

Communications are core to our business. Either by telephone, Internet or email. Utilising robust technologies, IP Phones, Leased Line Internet connection with robust Service Level Agreements (SLA) and SLA backed Cloud services we are confident that when bad things happen we can remain operational within the confines of our office or away from the office.

How may we help

I have experienced the approach where businesses follow a given practice because “we do it this way; it has always worked”. My response to this is that “Practice does not make perfect, Perfect Practice makes Perfect”, if you consistently do something badly or wrong the result is an imperfect or wrong outcome. It is never Luck which helps you recover from a disaster it is good disaster planning and all parties knowing their role in the event when a situation arises which could be negative and detrimental to a business.

Believe it or not technology moves on. Something we invested in yesterday may be superseded today, that is the nature of the beast. In business we need to be responsive to this and plan, test, adjust and plan again for those unmentionable calamities which sometimes occur.

Computer Network Services Ltd, having incorporated in 1989, we have in excess of 25 years’ experience of data backup, data retention and data restoration, we have seen a fair breadth of situations where businesses have lost data through poor planning. I do not confess to have seen all situations but probably have seem more than businesses outside of the IT community.

We can help you create these plans and implement solutions which meet the budgets of small businesses. Review our Support details. We know we do it for ourselves.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]