When disaster strikes, you’d better prepared

4 Questions to ask about your recovery plan

How frequently should your business execute backups? Perhaps your business rapidly generates data that is critical to its operations, making a backup necessary every 30 minutes. Or perhaps backing up data is only be necessary once per day. The right answer boils down to how much data your business can afford to lose.

Where should backup files reside—on premises, in the cloud, or both?  If your backup files only reside on premises, how will your business recover if it's hit with a disaster like a flood, fire, earthquake, or tornado? For most businesses, only having files on premises is unwise. However, if all your backup files are only in the cloud, then you risk losing time during the recovery stage. For many businesses, Hybrid IT is the best option. It allows you to have on-premises backup to expedite the recovery process, as well as cloud backup so files can be accessed if on-premises backups are destroyed.

How often will you test your backup plan? School kids practice fire drills every year. This teaches the kids what to do in an emergency, and it reduces panic because they are familiar with process. The same idea can be applied to your business. The recovery process can be stressful, so just having a plan is not enough. Your team should practice the plan, ensuring the process works and recovers the right amount of data for your business.

Who is on your recovery team and how are roles defined?  Your plan should identify the members of the recovery team, describe each person's role, and indicate if team roles differ depending on whether files are recovered from on premises or from the cloud. It should also define a chain of command so that if one person is unavailable to fulfill a role, it's clear who should adopt the role instead.

The NSD DR portfolio offers small and enterprise business storage and backup solutions that draw on the benefits of Hybrid IT. These DR solutions are sized specifically for critical businesses and are preconfigured and validated for common use cases. The NSD DR backup and disaster recovery plan embraces Hybrid IT helps you shield mission-critical apps, no matter what natural or man-made disaster may occur. With NSD professional services, you can have a holistic plan that removes the risk of business downtime.

Read more on NSD website for DR solution and strategy

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