In the hyper-competitive and online modern marketplace, downtime is analogous to failure.
This is why it’s essential to curate a worthwhile business continuity plan to prevent or limit the effects of downtime, especially in big-business areas like Houston.
After all, not all downtime will be your fault. Accidents can happen, disasters take place (especially in Texas), and unforeseen situations affect businesses across the country daily. Of course, the year of 2020 is perhaps the strongest example of this, and also the strongest example of the essential importance of the need for IT stability.
Many Texas businesses are turning to IT services in Houston to be able to establish and integrate the best continuity measures for when the unexpected takes place. Here are some of the ways your business continuity plan can help your business:
Cybersecurity Data Threat Analysis
Cybersecurity data threat analysis is the process by which research and adoption of knowledge regarding your internal and external IT vulnerabilities is considered against real-world cybersecurity threats. It is an evolving process that must always be updated.
This combines both a state of proactive and preventative cybersecurity readiness, ensuring that your response to threats (and, ideally, your complete protection against them) is in line with likely security issues that could and potentially even will take place.
This process involves data collection, the scope of your protection needs, analysis of acceptable risks, and threat/vulnerability reviews. An MSP can walk you through this process and deploy solutions as appropriate.
Natural Disaster Recovery
Unfortunately, every commercial victim of a business-affecting disaster (such as flooding, hurricanes or wildfires) believe it both cannot and will not happen to them. Texas is known for natural disasters, so this line of thinking is dangerous for Houston businesses.
It’s best to plan for this approach as if this unfortunate eventuality were guaranteed. This way, you can stay as flexible and protected as appropriate. Natural disaster recovery helps restore access to your servers, backs up data ahead of time, ensures your cloud computing is integral and thus not only stored within your business premises, and that your IT infrastructure is properly insured.
Managed service providers can ensure this process is well taken care of, while helping you procure further equipment if needing to replenish your workplace equipment.
A Comprehensive Recovery Plan
It’s hard to think straight and execute a recuperative solution when in the midst of an emergency, or even when cleaning up for one.
For this reason, your processes must be automated and follow a strict plan, pursuant to delegation of authority within your team.
This should include giving members of your team-specific assignments. Your managers may focus on cloud recovery and communicating the process with the rest of the team, and head of time, running training sessions to ensure this procedure is second-nature for your staff.
You will need to communicate this state of emergency to your managed IT service, your customers experiencing downtime, and your staff who may be on call. Planning for the resuming of operation is also essential, including how you’ll once again install IT infrastructure and how to get back online.
With this advice, your continuity plan will be comprehensive, and more importantly, effective. Your Houston business can withstand even the most unpredictable disasters by incorporating these elements.