Posts

The top 5 reasons to prepare your business continuity plan

/in , /by

The last thing you want is to go out of business in the event of an unforeseen circumstance. A business continuity plan is essential for modern businesses in any industry. Regardless of what kind of technology you use, think of this plan as a blueprint for keeping your business running in the event of a major disaster.

Disasters come in many forms, including natural disasters, human error, cyber attacks, and insider threats. The worst disasters always have the same effect: stopping your business dead in its tracks.

Sometimes, it’s hard to really conceptualize the importance of a continuity plan without looking at what happens if you don’t have one.

Take, for instance, the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. Urban legend has it that the conflagration started when Mrs. O’Leary’s cow kicked over a lantern in the family barn. The fire’s origin is debatable. The aftermath, however, is well documented and devastating by any standards.

The Great Chicago fire completely destroyed 3.2 miles in the heart of Chicago, rapidly consuming homes and businesses. The inferno resulted in the death of 300 citizens, the destruction of 17,500 buildings, Of the 300,000 residents of Chicago, 100,000 were left homeless.

The 185 firefighters employed within Chicago were ill-equipped to handle the ferocious spread of the fire, which was attributed to a drought as well as the mostly wooden construction of the city’s buildings, roads, and sidewalks.The total cost of the fire was estimated at $222 million, or roughly $4.6 billion today.

When a disaster this large happens, the only way for a business to survive is to have an understanding of what needs to be protected, how you want to respond, and which practices to follow to continue operations. Here are the 5 most important things to focus on when putting together a continuity plan.

1. Minimizing Downtime

The primary reason for a business continuity plan is to eliminate downtime. 75% of businesses don’t have any sort of business continuity plan or disaster recovery plan. Skipping out on a continuity plan is not only reckless, but extremely expensive.

ITIC’s latest survey data finds that 98% of organizations say a single hour of downtime costs over $100,000.Those aren’t numbers to be ignored. Whether you suffer a natural disaster or a cyber attack, the only way to stay in business is to continue your work as soon as possible. Otherwise, you may very well go out of business.

2. Protecting What’s Important

A business continuity plan should detail the necessary components and data that will keep your business running. This involves inventory of backup devices and cloud services, as well as an outline of your data backup specifics (when and where) and an overview of how company assets will be handled when disaster strikes.

3. Communicating with Confidence

One of the primary benefits of creating a business continuity plan is to establish a state of order amid the chaos. Your plan should focus on a chain-of-command delegation of responsibility, and should include reliable communication channels prioritized for contacting employees, partners and customers to minimize breakdowns in collaboration and service.

4. Resuming Operations

The goal of any business continuity plan is to get you back in business as soon as possible. Many companies have taken the extra precaution of utilizing backup and recovery sites. These are off-campus facilities where your business can be relocated to continue operations regardless of any damage or limited access you may experience.

These sites run the gamut from “cold sites”, which are bare-boned facilities without any installed operations, to “hot sites”, which are exact duplicates of your current operations.

5. Ensuring Your Recovery

A recent report finds that 60% of small businesses close within 6 months of a significant cyber attack. But this doesn’t have to be you. Implementing a business continuity plan to your current backup and data recovery solutions will allow you the peace of mind that even if disaster strikes, you don’t have to become a statistic.

We Are Here to Help

CCS Technology Group would be happy to help your business create a specific business continuity plan. We have proven experience developing solutions that will keep you in business no matter what outside forces may arrive.

It’s important to plan ahead. It might just save your business.

Give us a call or send us a message to learn more.

 

What is hybrid cloud storage?

/in , /by

Cloud-based storage is hardly a new technology. It’s been a common IT solution for a number of years. For the most part, cloud storage is seen as a practical, convenient, flexible solution. However, despite its advantages, not everyone is convinced.

That’s because some still have concerns about the speed of access to data hosted in the cloud, possible latency, and security and compliance challenges. To address these fears, a new solution is now available – hybrid cloud storage.

How does hybrid cloud storage work?

Hybrid cloud storage is essentially a mix of off-site (cloud) and on-site storage. You keep some data in one place and some data in the other. This blended approach makes sense for several reasons.

Flexible Options

With hybrid cloud storage, you have multiple options for data storage. Your information can reside in an on-premise server, in a public cloud server, or in a private cloud server.

On-site storage works well for quick access. Public cloud servers are convenient, as all the maintenance is taken care of on your behalf. Private cloud servers require more effort on your part but come with a higher level of control and security.

The good news is that hybrid cloud solutions give you the ability to choose the blend that’s right for your company.

Strategic Storage

How do you know what data should go where? That’s a matter of your overall IT strategy.

For example, a financial firm might decide to store critical data (such as customers’ financial details) on its own local servers, while less sensitive data might be stored in a public cloud server. Alternately, a company might use both the private and public cloud, leaning on the latter for data archiving, backup, disaster recovery, workflow sharing and distribution and the former for high-security data.

You don’t have to go all-in on a single type of storage. Rather, you can mix and match according to your needs and requirements.

Scalable Growth

Many companies use hybrid cloud storage to supplement internal storage. This makes sense, particularly as a part of your growth strategy. If your business is expanding, it can be difficult to keep up with storage needs. However, cloud servers give you an easy way to add storage space quickly.

Use your local storage for the data you access more frequently and relegate data archives to the cloud. In that way, hybrid cloud storage can really take the bite out of some normal growing pains.

Cost-effective

There’s one final benefit. For a lot of organizations, there are some real cost savings to a hybrid cloud approach.

No, that’s not a guarantee that your company will save money. However, the cost of purchasing and maintaining all your own server space can be prohibitive for small businesses. A hybrid storage strategy allows for options to lower those expenses, limiting the amount of onsite storage you need while still meeting your company’s storage needs.

The challenge of hybrid storage.

The main challenge for companies interested in a hybrid storage solution is knowing which options to choose. You can’t capitalize on the advantages of the hybrid cloud if you don’t deploy your infrastructure the right way. Luckily, CCS Technology can help.

CSS Technology has years of experience setting up hybrid cloud storage solutions. We’re here to make sure you enjoy all the benefits of the hybrid cloud without any headaches. If you’d like to learn more about how a hybrid cloud approach might work for your business, give us a call. We’ll be happy to put our expertise to work for you.