What is business continuity?
Business continuity is the ability of an organization to maintain essential functions during, as well as after, a disaster has occurred. Business continuity planning establishes risk management processes and procedures that aim to prevent interruptions to mission-critical services, and re-establish full function to the organization as quickly and smoothly as possible.
The most basic business continuity requirement is to keep essential functions up and running during a disaster and to recover with as little downtime as possible. A business continuity plan considers various unpredictable events, such as natural disasters, fires, disease outbreaks, cyber-attacks and other external threats.
Business continuity is important for organizations of any size, but it may not be practical for any but the largest enterprises to maintain all functions for the duration of a disaster. According to many experts, the first step in business continuity planning is deciding which of an organization's functions are essential and allocating the available budget accordingly. Once crucial components have been identified, fail-over mechanisms can be put in place.
The most basic business continuity requirement is to keep essential functions up and running during a disaster and to recover with as little downtime as possible. A business continuity plan considers various unpredictable events, such as natural disasters, fires, disease outbreaks, cyber-attacks and other external threats.
Business continuity is important for organizations of any size, but it may not be practical for any but the largest enterprises to maintain all functions for the duration of a disaster. According to many experts, the first step in business continuity planning is deciding which of an organization's functions are essential and allocating the available budget accordingly. Once crucial components have been identified, fail-over mechanisms can be put in place.
A business continuity plan has three key elements: Resilience, recovery and contingency.
- A company can increase resilience by designing critical functions and infrastructures with various disaster possibilities in mind; this can include staffing rotations, data redundancy and maintaining a surplus of capacity. Ensuring resiliency against different scenarios can also help businesses maintain essential services on location and off-site without interruption.
- Rapid recovery to restore business functions after a disaster is crucial. Setting recovery time objectives for different systems, networks or applications can help prioritize which elements need to be recovered first. Other recovery strategies include resource inventories, agreements with third parties to take on company activity and using converted spaces for mission-critical functions.
- A contingency plan has procedures in place for a variety of external scenarios and can include a chain of command that distributes responsibilities within the organization. These responsibilities can include hardware replacement, leasing emergency office spaces, damage assessment and contracting third-party vendors for assistance.
Data is the life blood of individuals and small businesses alike. For the majority of us, data is a vital part in everything we do. So the real questions is what are you doing to protect this data? A good backup system is a lot like homeowners insurance. You hope you’ll never have to actually use it, but when disaster strikes words will never adequately describe how happy you are that you have it.
Let's be honest, have you ever thought about what would happen if your server or workstation crash or get infected by a virus and all of your data was wiped clean?
We always plan for the very worst, and that’s what makes us so good at what we do. We make reliable and easily accessible on-site and off-site operating system snapshots & backups for all your important data. So if any system failures take place or your business get infected my Ransomware, we can get you up and running within several minutes, with the same applications, network connection, work environment and files. like nothing happened.
A business continuity plan has three key elements: Resilience, recovery and contingency.
- A company can increase resilience by designing critical functions and infrastructures with various disaster possibilities in mind; this can include staffing rotations, data redundancy and maintaining a surplus of capacity. Ensuring resiliency against different scenarios can also help businesses maintain essential services on location and off-site without interruption.
- Rapid recovery to restore business functions after a disaster is crucial. Setting recovery time objectives for different systems, networks or applications can help prioritize which elements need to be recovered first. Other recovery strategies include resource inventories, agreements with third parties to take on company activity and using converted spaces for mission-critical functions.
- A contingency plan has procedures in place for a variety of external scenarios and can include a chain of command that distributes responsibilities within the organization. These responsibilities can include hardware replacement, leasing emergency office spaces, damage assessment and contracting third-party vendors for assistance.
You’ll be covered and running in record time!
Your entire computer can be replaced, but you can't retake your kids 4th-grade pictures, the family trip photos or the important letter you wrote to your bank, lawyer or loved ones.
The advantages of using online backup
Most people have not yet discovered the convenience of online backups, and for those people I have decided to create a list some of the most important advantages of online backup.
Having duplicate copies of your most important information saved in a remote location keeps it safe in case anything goes badly wrong with your computer.
When you think about it there are a number of ways files can be lost unexpectedly…
The bottom line is that if you value what’s kept on your computer, it’s wise to take steps to protect your information from sudden loss. Work can be redone, but the loss of cherished files like family and travel photos is permanent.
Many users regularly back up their files to their computer hard drive, but in the event of a total computer breakdown this will not protect the information. Saving data to a separate location makes far more sense, and can be easily done if you have an external hard drive or USB drive to back up onto.
However this method is only as secure as the device you’re backing up to. When saving your files on physical devices, your backup device needs to be kept in a different location than your computer, and can in turn fall victim to damage or loss. In addition, despite your best intentions, you may forget to copy your files as often as you should, leaving a large amount of recent work unprotected.
A safer and more effective method of securing files is online backup. Files stored online are safe from damage your computer, and if something goes wrong with your machine you will still have remote access to your information from any computer with internet access. This means files can be quickly and easily restored to your computer from a secure online server.
Most people have not yet discovered the convenience of online backups, and for those people I have decided to create a list some of the most important advantages of online backup.
- With online backup you always have a backup, whatever happens. Every day your backup is created automatically and immediately stored safely outside your home and/or business. Even after fire or burglary, you can easily get your data back with the click of a button.
- Online backup runs quietly in the background so you do not have to worry about it but it can also provide you with extensive statistics if required. After each backup you can request a comprehensive report about the backup job. You can determine at which moment of the day the backup is made, so your productivity is not affected.
- The backup is always ready for restore. You can restore your data at any time and at any location with a simple press of button retrieval. Some online backup providers can even deliver your backed up data by carrier so you don’t have to wait for your backed-up data to be downloaded over the internet.
- Your data is automatically encrypted before it is sent over the secure Internet connection. The data remains stored encrypted. This is your data only for you to read.
- Making your backups online gives you peace of mind. You will no longer have to worry about backing up your data and the safety of your backup media. As your online backup provider I will take care of this.
Having duplicate copies of your most important information saved in a remote location keeps it safe in case anything goes badly wrong with your computer.
When you think about it there are a number of ways files can be lost unexpectedly…
- Computer crashes – always happen when you least need it, and can lead to data loss.
- Virus Infection – aggressive malicious viruses can corrupt files and disable computers.
- Hard drive failure - hard drives have a finite lifetime and can fail suddenly and without warning. The sudden death of a hard drive can cause the painful loss of months or years of irreplaceable files and the timing can be catastrophic – if this happens close to a work or college deadline it could be a nightmare scenario.
- Physical computer damage – your files are more at risk if you use a laptop. Light and portable comes at the price of reduced durability. Laptops are sensitive and are easily damaged if dropped or have drinks spilled over them.
- Theft – computers are sought after by thieves and cannot always be kept secure whilst travelling.
The bottom line is that if you value what’s kept on your computer, it’s wise to take steps to protect your information from sudden loss. Work can be redone, but the loss of cherished files like family and travel photos is permanent.
Many users regularly back up their files to their computer hard drive, but in the event of a total computer breakdown this will not protect the information. Saving data to a separate location makes far more sense, and can be easily done if you have an external hard drive or USB drive to back up onto.
However this method is only as secure as the device you’re backing up to. When saving your files on physical devices, your backup device needs to be kept in a different location than your computer, and can in turn fall victim to damage or loss. In addition, despite your best intentions, you may forget to copy your files as often as you should, leaving a large amount of recent work unprotected.
A safer and more effective method of securing files is online backup. Files stored online are safe from damage your computer, and if something goes wrong with your machine you will still have remote access to your information from any computer with internet access. This means files can be quickly and easily restored to your computer from a secure online server.
