The Contingency Planning Guide

the contingency planning guide
Sometimes a contingency plan (sometimes called a “Plan B”) is developed in case your chosen course of action doesn’t work out. A contingency planning guide is also a component of disaster recovery, business continuity scenarios and risk management that are part of nearly all business planning.

Like this article mentions, a contingency plan is a course of action designed to help an organization respond effectively to a significant future event or situation that may or may not happen.

What does contingency planning cover?

A good contingency plan should include any eventuality that might disrupt business operations.

  • events such as natural disasters,
  • exceptional employee events such as threats from staff or customers, injuries, and work site accidents,
  • departure or disability of a senior manager or discontinuity in senior management,
  • strikes or work actions by unions,
  • data loss because of technical problems, fires or natural disasters, sabotage or criminal hacking,
  • gross management, theft, critical neglect of duty, or accidental destruction of equipment, materials or products,
  • product issues such as product recalls, or huge demand orders that require plant relocation or reorganization.

The Contingency Plan:

Writing a complete contingency plan is a significant operation requiring entire staff and management investment. The contingency plan has to be an outline of steps that all are prepared to take and an outline that all are committed to following.

Firstly, you must analyze risks. A list of all possible events that could disrupt operations has to be drawn up. The list should be realistic, and contributions from all departments should be included.

For each item on the list, the likelihood of it occurring should be estimated. Many possibilities are so unlikely that they could reasonably be left out of the plan.

Estimate how much impact each of the disruptive possibilities might have.  If a possibility would have minimal or manageable impact, you may not need a unique plan.

For each contingency with a reasonable likelihood of occurring with a significant impact on the organization, work out steps that would protect people, property, and business continuity if that event occurred.

Contingency planning is about likelihood of occurrence and likely impact. Those are the key dimensions that pay a part in your decisions.

4 Corner IT has contingency plans for almost any organization. Our expertise in contingency planning comes from actual experience. Please contact us to learn more.

Business Computer Backup: How To Backup Your Computer To The Cloud

business computer backup how to backup your computer to the cloud
Cloud Backup

Cloud backups are the easiest form of backup to set up and maintain, and most services allow access to your files from various platforms.  And learning about business computer backup is very important.

To backup your files, create an account, download software, and input your account information. After this process, every time your computer goes online, the software will automatically back up your files.

Do not confuse online backup services with cloud storage and syncing services like Dropbox and Google Drive. These services save your files in the cloud–mostly for collaboration and editing–but they do not store all system files.

Cloud backups encrypt your files so no one has access to them and copies them to a number of drives on various computers. If one of these computers losses data, your information is available in another server.

After uploading your information, the client does not have to worry about uploading their material again.

A downside of cloud backup is that the initial uploading can take a few weeks or months, but this will depend on the amount of data that a company wishes to upload and the speed of their Internet connection.

Most Internet Service Providers (ISPs) focus more on download speeds than upload speeds. A good idea is to temporarily update to a plan with more “upload bandwidth” during your initial backup.

Another potential problem with the use of cloud backup services is if you lose your physical backups and need access to all of your files. In that situation you would be limited by the speed with which you could download information from your cloud service.

Resolving these problems depends on working closely with your ISPs. If you would like to learn more about cloud backup contact us.

Who is the Typical DRaaS Client?

who is the typical draas client

4corner-IT-Disaster-ONTO-Blog
IT Disaster Recovery as a Service

There’s no doubt that the benefits of disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS) are geared toward small businesses. By using DRaaS instead of managing their own data center, small businesses can enjoy the same benefits while paying a fraction of the cost. This allows them to reduce expenses while simultaneously ensuring the future of their business operations. The question now is if small businesses are actually signing up for the service that’s designed for them?

According to recent research, the answer is yes. A recent Cloud Wedge article provides data about small businesses using DRaaS:

“As many as 90% of DRaaS set-ups are for organizations running just 3 to 6 enterprise applications, with between 2 and 5 terabytes of associated data storage. While it’s better to think out your own solution rather than just copying what other SMBs are doing, statistics like these suggest it’s worth taking a look at DRaaS.”

According to the article, the typical DRaaS user is a small business, based on their equipment and hardware. This is a good indicator that small businesses are learning about the benefits of the service and spreading the word.

But the article makes another good point as well. Just because other small businesses are signing up for the service, doesn’t mean that you should too. There are different factors at play that will determine whether DRaaS would be beneficial to your business. For example, if your business already has purchased a data center, chances are it’ll be cheaper for you to stick with it unless you can recover most of that cost.

In most cases, however, small businesses benefit from DRaaS. It ensures the continuity of their business operations without requiring a large upfront investment or monthly expenses. This is why thousands of other small businesses have already signed up for the service and many intend on doing so in the foreseeable future.

If you would like more information about disaster recovery, contact us.

Backup and Disaster Recovery: How Storing Data to a Cloud Can Benefit You on a Rainy Day

backup and disaster recovery how storing data to a cloud can benefit you on a rainy day
Value Of Network Support

Backup and disaster recovery of your business’s data should be a top priority, no matter how small or large your business is.

Anyone who doesn’t have some kind of backup system for their data in today’s time is playing as much risk as driving without car insurance. Regardless, deciding which method to use in backing up data might be nearly as challenging when so many options exist.

The trend seems to be honing in to one system away from the office that may become standard before the end of the decade. That’s because it’s usually the most reliable in how quickly data is saved and in the data retrieval time.

Cloud-Based Backup as Most Reliable System

Saving business data to a cloud means taking your data to an outside hosted server that manages it for you. It’s a solution that’s much more manageable than the era when all data had to be transferred to tape or disk and then stored in another location for security purposes.

This isn’t to say most decisions behind using cloud-based backup aren’t going to vary depending on assessment of a business’s data recovery objectives. Because of those usually more convenient aspects, it explains why cloud-based systems are predicted to become the main solution to most backup issues in companies.

The Cost and Security Aspects are Becoming Attractive

The affordability of cloud-based systems is likely one reason why they’re becoming so popular. That’s because they usually charge a flat rate for the data storage and only charge you more when you need to use their services to recover lost data. Other outsourced backup systems don’t work that way, so it’s a cost-effective strategy for any upstart business.

Plus, with new advanced encyption methods on cloud systems, you don’t have to worry as much about your data being hacked. Each cloud-based server will allow a particular security setting depending on the requests of that business.

Retrieval During Disasters

Companies that live in disaster-prone areas are particularly starting to turn to cloud systems to ensure data can be recovered.

In locations where hurricanes or earthquakes are increasing, the destruction of a business and loss of data can disrupt any chance of a business getting back on its feet. Clouds are known for backing up data often and running recurring tests to make sure everything will be there when it’s desperately needed.

How long it’ll take to get your data back is also a major selling point. Because cloud-based systems are managed so well, it won’t take months to retrieve your data as you’d find with other outsourced backup plans.

But those are just a few of the advantages of using a cloud for your data storage. If you’re looking for the most cutting edge cloud system, consider 4 Corner IT as your source in finding the right one.

Contact us and we’ll connect you with many of our partnered cloud vendors that provide the most robust backup solutions while saving you considerable money.