When Disaster Strikes

A business acquaintance recently reminded me that if “you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” What she referred to was that without proper planning, most projects - and in effect most businesses - needlessly waste money and valuable resources.

It’s hard to find a single person that, when asked, wouldn’t mind saving thousands of dollars. Yet very few businesses manage to do just that, by thinking about the unthinkable ahead of time. According to a recent piece by eWEEK writer Herman Mehling, “a natural or man-made disaster can strike anywhere, anytime, with ruthless and devastating results - that’s the awful essence of a disaster.” He goes on to say:

“Hurricane Katrina and the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks loom large in the collective memory for the magnitude of their destruction, but smaller-scale, localized disasters happen all the time: a fire in a building, human error that erases a server, a power outage in a town. Each can wreck a business in minutes and is much more likely to happen than a terrorist attack or a hurricane.

As gloomy as those scenarios may be, the name of the game for companies is “prepare for the worst; hope for the best.” Companies can minimize the worst possible disruptions to their businesses and the lives of their employees by creating disaster recovery and business continuity plans. Such plans are not just for large and well-connected companies, but for small and midmarket companies as well.

These plans can protect company data and applications, and they can have a company back in business within 48 hours or less after a disaster. That’s where savvy solution providers come in. They can provide the consulting expertise to help companies craft their plans and then flesh out those plans with technology solutions.”

One of the easiest steps to implement is Data Replication Software: Make a Copy, Stay in Business - it copies corporate information to an offsite location, and is one of the key components of any disaster recovery plan.

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