Comstock's magazine 1217 - December 2017 | Page 27

LEBRATING CE 20 CORPORATE ANNIVERSARY YE ARS SMILE BUSINESS PRODUCTS, INC. What is your IT Disaster Recovery Plan? Y ou can’t help think about the devas­ tating impact the recent fires had on businesses and individuals. Not only can a fire be detrimental to your business so can other disasters like malicious attacks or an unmaintained network. These are all reasons to prepare an IT Disaster Recovery Plan. Be prepared! What is a Disaster Recovery Plan? A disaster recovery plan is a documented pro­ cess or set of procedures to recover and protect your business IT infrastructure in the event of a disaster. The comprehensive plan consistents of actions to be taken before, during and after a disaster. Here are basic considerations Smile imple- ments when creating a database backup and recovery plan: DATA IMPORTANCE How important is the information in your da­ tabase for your company? For more important and business­critical data you will create a plan that involves making extra copies of your database over the same period and ensuring that the copies can be easily restored when required. For less important data (daily log files), you can schedule a simple plan that does not require frequent database backup and recovery. Either way you’ll need to be sure that your information is backed up and saved on a regular basis. FREQUENCY OF CHANGE How often does your database get updated? The frequency of change will directly influ­ ence your decision on how often to back up and recover your database. For instance, if critical data is modified daily then you should make a daily backup schedule to include multiple backups. SPEED How much time do you need to back up or recover your files? Recovery speed is an im­ portant time­related factor that determines the maximum possible time period that could be spent on basic data backup. STORAGE Where do you plan to store database dupli­ cates? You may consider storing your database copies off­site. This security measure will allow you to recover your systems in case of a natural disaster. Storing backups on­site is essential to quickly restoring. Case Study of Smile’s Disaster Recovery Plan for our customers: Smile’s engineers recommend that proce­ dures are put in place to recovery and protect businesses such as our customer Amy. A well­designed plan is critical, as Amy’s situa­ tion illustrates: Disaster stuck at the home of Amy C., a CPA in Northern California. Amy’s home office burned down. Smile received a call from Amy to notify us of the disaster and we started work immediately to get Amy’s CPA firm back up and running. Amy’s recovery plan included three levels of protection to retrieve and restore all her data: 1. External Crash Plan off­site and Windows back up for all data and files 3. On­site Datto devise for all e­mails, data and files Of course, the on­site device was destroyed in the fire, but we were able to retrieve all her company data from our other two exter­ nal sources. That afternoon, Amy’s company was operating again without losing any data, files or e­mails. Within two weeks, Smile ordered, installed and configured all her new equipment and Amy’s CPA firm was back at full capacity in her new office. It gives our customers peace of mind to know that Smile’s Disaster Recovery Plan protects their company from any type of disaster. $1.4m is the average total cost of damages and recovery for an SMB incurred in a disaster. 48% of SMBs have experienced data loss as a result of improper data backup and/or inadequate disaster recovery plans. 25% of SMBs are likely to declare a disaster in any given five-year period. 2. External Datto recovery for all e­mails, as well as data and files Managed IT Services Contact Smile today and let us help you design a comprehensive plan for your business. 916.481.7695 | www.SmileBPI.com December 2017 | comstocksmag.com 27