The Business Guide to Surviving the Next Hurricane (Part Two)

In Part One of our article, we talked about the devastating impact that Hurricane Harvey had on businesses in the Houston area. We also explained how developing a business continuity plan, complete with how the three essential elements of operational recovery sites, data backup and communications, can help save your business when disaster strikes.

Today, we’re going over more ways to stop business interruption, with a big focus on 3 questions you need to answer when you are working with your managed services provider (MSP) to prepare your business continuity plan.

1. Do you have a cloud solution in place?

Now that you know how important it is to back up your data, you’re probably wondering how to go about doing so. If you don’t already have one or more cloud solutions in place, that should be one of your first steps.

A recent study found that 90% of organizations use the cloud in some way, with 50% using cloud services as their preferred solution. We could write an entire paper on the benefits of cloud services (and we’ll get to that soon), but one of the major benefits you’re looking at is the ability for the cloud to keep your business running as a primary and/or backup server.

Your data should also have a physical backup, but with the cloud, you will be operational in minimal time.

2. Do you understand how important it is to eliminate downtime?

When disaster shuts down your business, you immediately start losing money. A recent ITIC survey finds that 98% of organizations say a single hour of downtime costs over $100,000. Even if your business is doing very well, no business owner or decision maker looks at a $100,000 loss with a big smile. And that’s just one hour.

When you extrapolate those figures over the days, weeks, months it sometimes takes an ill-prepared business to become operational, it’s easy to see why 60 percent of small companies go out of business within six months of a cyberattack.

3. Are you prepared for mobile operations?

Over 70% of businesses are permitting, or planning to soon permit, employees to use their own devices for work purposes. The rise of the “bring your own device” (BYOD) trend can definitely work in your favor if you need to shift quickly to operating out-of-office. You must, however, ensure that your data is secure across platforms.

When building your business continuity plan, you also want to work with your MSP to create a network that adapts to a mobile environment. Cybersecurity should never take a backseat to business continuity. There’s no reason these two can’t work hand-in-hand to minimize data loss and optimize productivity.

GB Tech Will Stop Business Interruption in 15 Minutes or Less

Here at GB Tech, we will work with your business to create a business continuity plan that guarantees minimal business interruption, and enables your business to be operational in 15 minutes or less.

We believe in Houston business and we are happy to share more specific information about how to keep your business going in the event of a disaster.

Please reach out to GB Tech to learn more. You can contact us anything, anytime.