Data safety is a primary concern for companies all over the world. Different companies are trying out several ways to combat the problem. However, most solutions do not tackle the problem entirely. Business continuity is a primary objective for every company, and data safety plays an important role.
Before we understand the importance of data safety in business continuity, let’s understand the concept of business continuity.
What is Business Continuity?
Business continuity is the ability of a company to continue with its regular operations post a disaster or a significant disruption. The process involves active risk management that helps the company overcome the barriers and avoid any interruptions in the routine functioning of the business.
Business continuity also refers to the smooth reestablishment of the entire organization. The essential requirement of business continuity is to ensure that all the essential functions of the business are up and running. Also, they should take the minimum time possible to recover from a disaster. A disaster can cause significant havoc in the business, and the company might lose a lot of data. The disaster here can be a natural disaster like an earthquake, fire, or disease outbreak. Even cyber-attacks are considered disasters, and hence, data safety becomes essential.
Understanding the Importance of Business Continuity
The business’s downtime increases if there is a cyber-attack on the company. Such attacks can lead to data theft; hence, the business cannot operate normally. However, business continuity is a critical parameter for every company, and to ensure that the business runs like normal after a disaster, you need to have a business continuity plan.
The plan ensures that the company runs even if it runs at its minimum efficiency. Business continuity makes a company much more resilient. Also, the company gets first-hand experience handling a crisis like never before. If the business continuity is handled effectively, it saves the company’s reputation. Additionally, the company saves a lot of money that could have gone into re-establishing the business from scratch.
A good business continuity plan has data at its core. The plan focuses on storing data so the company can access it after a disaster.
Implementing Data Safety Measures for Business Continuity
Several companies have a business continuity plan to manage disasters like cyber-attacks. The plan emphasizes data safety as data is the organization’s lifeblood. If a third party is privy to sensitive company information, it might destroy the company. Hence, data safety during business continuity comes into the picture.
Data Mirroring
Companies today are using technologies like disk mirroring to create a backup of all their data. The backup is stored at different geographical locations apart from the primary data center so that it can be easily retrieved if a disaster happens. Hence, the employees can continue to access the data, and business continuity is not hampered.
Cloud Backups
Additionally, companies must invest in secure cloud data backups as these backups keep the long-term functionality of any business. These backups are essential as the company cannot afford to lose information like user IDs, work files, etc. When you create on-site and off-site data backups, you support the business continuity plan in several ways. Ideally, it would be best if you store these backups in the cloud as you can access the information from anywhere.
Data Replication
The company copies and pastes all its data to other websites with data replication. Some out there can help you automate the process, as manual replication is prone to errors. You should not confuse them with backups as backups focus on storage while replication focuses on creating different locations for the data. You can easily replicate the applications you use along with their security settings.
Threat Analysis Reports
A treat analysis report is a must-have if you want to move ahead with a business continuity plan that ensures data safety. The report must contain a history of the place and if it is prone to any disasters. The report should also include the problems of the area where you have your office.
Also, it must include the possibility of any cyberattacks and the probability of a data breach. You can let your imagination wild and include any possible threat that can hamper the company’s functioning.
Have a Chain of Command
A crisis management plan can only be successful if people know what to do and whom to go to in a crisis. Therefore, you should assign key responsibilities to a few people and establish a chain of command. Once a chain of command is included in the plan, people know what to do during and after the disaster.
However, you need to train your employees for a disaster, and such events can cause a lot of confusion. While you cannot avoid natural disasters, you can try to prevent crises that can be controlled.
Disaster Recovery Plan
While a business continuity plan is essential, you must also have a disaster recovery plan. The plan will safeguard your computer network and your business’s data. A data recovery plan is a written plan which establishes a channel of communication and the process of safeguarding the data and its access post-disaster.
The plan will include how a company can automate its data backups. Also, it establishes the steps to create off-site redundant backups so that the company’s data is safe to post a disaster. If the company wants to recover from a disaster quickly, the employees need to continue working. However, the employees can only continue to work if they have remote network access. Here is where the IT team of the company shows some active involvement.
The disaster cannot be the first time when you test the plan. Hence, it would help if you run a pilot to ensure that the plan works. You need to monitor it and fix the loopholes. You should also conduct a routine maintenance process to keep your network patched and system up to date. If you follow these steps, you can ensure business continuity with data safety.
Wrapping Up
Now that you are aware of implementing business continuation with data safety, you must make your business ready for it. If you need help with creating protocols and installing relevant systems, contact Data Safe Group. We will be happy to implement and maintain reliable business continuity and disaster recovery plan for your business.