Everslea Associates Disaster Recovery Services ensures that you have a robust Disaster Recovery plan in place that minimises operational and financial impact on your business should your IT systems fail.
Technology underpins practically every part of a business; but the more we rely on our tools, networks, and applications, the more we could lose if they fail us.
That’s why every business needs a plan in place to quickly restore and recover IT systems in the event of a failure – in other words, a disaster recovery (DR) plan.
But knowing what you must do is often a lot easier than doing it. As such, there’s a world of difference between thinking you’re prepared for a disaster and having a comprehensive DR plan in place.
Benjamin Franklin warned that “if you fail to plan, you are planning to fail”
Which is good as far as it goes but if your plan isn’t any good, you’re just as likely to fail, only at a far more vulnerable stage. That’s why testing is so important.
The purpose of a disaster recovery plan is to reduce damage or disruption and recover as quickly as possible in the event of a disaster that leads to system failure.
DR plans usually have two key components: a recovery time objective (RTO) and a recovery point objective (RPO).
The RTO is the time it takes to recover systems after an outage, which determines how much time you need to restore business operations.
The RPO reveals how often a backup needs to take place, by setting a limit for the length of time the company can sustain data loss.
Creating a DR plan can also have immediate benefits. For instance, because developing the plan involves conducting an audit of your IT assets and Service Level Agreements, you’ll better understand the organisation’s IT estate. You'll know who is responsible for which assets and when they need to recover systems and restore backups.
What makes an effective DR plan?
There are five clear elements to an effective Disaster Recovery Plan.
Prevention, mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery
Everslea provide flexible support solutions that are based on the best fit for your requirements. We can tailor a support package to provide you with what you need when you need it.
Your disaster recovery plan might look good on paper, but without practical backing to support its implementation and activation, it is unlikely to live up to its promise.
Define people’s roles
For any disaster recovery plan to work, it needs people. These people should know their roles within the plan and should receive training so they’re clear what they need to do when it’s crunch time.
Establish a communication plan
A communication plan names and records the departments and employees involved in the DR plan, with the relevant contact details. It should also include vendors, partners, and customers.
Regular testing
As your business grows and its IT infrastructure changes, your DR plan needs to keep pace with those changes through regular audits and tests.
“Disaster recovery is a form of security planning that allows a business to maintain or recover infrastructure and systems following a disaster”
The rise of Disaster Recovery-as-a-Service
With so many businesses adopting cloud-based services and applications, Disaster Recovery-as-a-Service (DRaaS) solutions are increasingly popular.
Even before the pandemic, it was estimated that as many as half of all organisations could not survive a disaster event because of inadequate DR planning and implementation.
Benefits of DRaaS include:
Faster recovery with an immediate switch over to a backup system.
Flexibility – the ability to recover from many disaster types with a single solution.
Security – DRaaS providers offer seamless redundancy with no single point of failure, to keep data securely backed up.
Less need for redundant hardware, as DRaaS offers flexible pay-as-you-grow models.
What can Everslea Associates do for you?
Everslea Associates will audit your current IT environment and submit a costed Scope of Works that would outline what a comprehensive Disaster Recovery Plan would look like for your business.
Everslea would implement the solution that has been agreed giving you peace of mind that your business can recover & be back up and working with minimal disruption, saving £000’s in lost revenue and productivity.
Contact Everslea Associates now to arrange your DR Planning Audit.
Website: Get started today →
Telephone: 0845 873 9305
Email: Harvey.Thain@everslea.co.uk
