Preparing for the unexpected

By Jay Epton | May 28, 2012 | Leave a Comment

Our latest Symantec 2012 SMB Disaster Preparedness Survey found that SMBs are increasingly planning and implementing virtualisation, cloud computing and mobility – a strategic IT trend we typically associate with larger enterprise businesses.

It seems that SMBs are becoming more aware of the threat that a break in business could pose to the company and, as a result, are turning to new technologies to help them prepare for unforeseen circumstances which might cause disruption to their business performance.

So what are the threats that SMBs face? Well, they can be hit with any number of incidents which could disrupt operations, ranging from natural disasters like floods or fires, to common theft of damage of computer/mobile hardware. In these circumstances, companies will find themselves desperate to resume normal operations as soon as possible to prevent loss of business, reputational harm, and pertinently, any negative impact on long term prospects.

It is also at this point that those without a plan in place, and just as importantly, concrete measures designed to mitigate any problems occurring, could find themselves in trouble. Smaller organisations simply cannot afford to experience any significant periods of downtime and so the ability to recover quickly, and return to full capacity is of paramount importance.

Cloud computing is proving particularly popular among SMB’s with 40% deploying public clouds, and a similar number (43%) implementing private clouds. Over a third (35%) are taking advantage of mobile devices for business use, and 34 per cent are looking towards virtualisation.

To help you manage your best practise for disaster preparedness, we’ve pin pointed a few key recommendations that should help you to stay in control:

- Businesses should start planning now, preparing now for potential business disruption, rather than waiting and being caught unaware. Now is the time to begin evaluating which technologies would work best with your particular type of business

- Focus on implementing strategic technologies. For instance, adopt integrated cloud backup for offsite storage and disaster recovery, and automated physical to virtual (P2V) backup conversion so you can recover your physical system to a virtual machine in case of a server failure

- Ensure that information is protected by using comprehensive security and backup solutions that protects your physical, virtual and mobile systems. You may also consider backing up data saved to the cloud by working with a trusted cloud vendor to utilise the appropriate technology and expertise

- At least once per quarter you should evaluate your disaster preparedness strategy and test its effectiveness. Can you recover what you need in the timeframe you require? There’s no telling what the future holds, and it’s important to be ready for any event that can result in information loss.

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