In the data center industry, we have been singing the mantra for over 10 years that Disaster Recovery is more than just about backup. Unfortunately, that message is still relevant today, possibly more so given the many different cloud options available for organizations of all sizes to quickly and easily backup data.
The issue remains, that backup alone might not be enough. In the Enterprise space, there continues to be a significant investment in planning and preparation to ensure that critical people and systems continue to function in an emergency. In the SMB space, representing a large number of companies across North America, cloud-based backup may be a panacea that isn’t really helping to fix the problem. Companies need to remember that cloud is just another method of service delivery…you still need to put some good thought into how it works for you.
The SMB space ranges from those with a fully-staffed team of people focused on IT to traditional businesses where an IT manager scrambles to keep things running while also covering other areas of tech support. Throwing data into a cloud-based backup service seems like a fairly robust solution (especially where the “take a USB Drive” home) approach is still common; but really, is that doing more harm than good and providing a false sense of security?
The fact is, you really need to slow down, take a breath, and think through your business to figure out what you really need to do to protect your company, customers, and employees during an emergency.
Ask a few questions about the most important tools and systems for your business:
To serve your customers –
- What tools (systems and people) do they count on from your company?
- For example, do your clients access your ERP system as part of their supply chain?
- Do they need access to your CSRs to properly function?
- How much time could they afford to lose access before it hurts them?
To serve your employees –
- What tools do they need internally to contact and service customers?
- If the phone system isn’t online, do they have cellular backup?
- Can they access the CRM or other important systems?
- What tools do managers need to help staff during an emergency?
Once you’ve asked these questions, you should have a pretty good idea of what systems are needed to keep your business, customers and revenue flowing.
That’s a great start to get information needed before you look at sourcing a disaster recovery solution to support your specific business needs.
Questions about the best Disaster Recovery solution for your business, we can help. Set up a quick call with one of our experts here.
This blog post is written by Joe Damiani, Vice President at Canada15Edge Data Centers with +20 years experience in the data center and cloud services space.
About Canada15Edge Data Centers:
C15Edge provides carrier neutral, highly secure Colocation and Disaster Recovery services in the Greater Toronto Area. Their fully redundant facility delivers guaranteed uptime supported by a concurrently maintainable design – no single point of failure for Power, Cooling, and Network. Their international customers count on their hardware support (warehousing, installation & RMA) as well as thier low latency access to Canadian backbone networks. Focused on high-touch customer service, Canada15Edge provides a flexible alternative in the Canadian market today.
Why Canada15Edge for Disaster Recovery? Read more here.
