Ask One Question
You’re a small business owner with customers, stakeholders and employees who all rely and depend on you. With this responsibility, you should ask one question: Will my business remain buoyant in the event of short or long-term operational disruptions?
You shouldn’t need to think about the answer. If you need to pause to contemplate a response, the answer is a definite ‘No!’ To change ‘No’ into ‘Yes’, you need to have robust business continuity (BC) and disaster recovery (DR) strategies integrated into your company. Daily business operations are unpredictable: extreme weather, cyber security and shortcomings of the technologies we use, are three examples of risks that expose the vulnerabilities of any company. Sound BC and DR plans mean that the risk from these threats are eliminated or significantly reduced.
In reality, most small-to-medium size businesses (SMBs) are insufficiently prepared in the realm of BC and DR. Consider this: A 2011 Systematic survey stated that approximately 57% of SMBs did not have a business continuity or disaster recovery plan to fall back on in the event of an unforeseen crisis. Such a statistic seems inconceivable in a day and age when SMBs store vast quantities of sensitive data. More data, however, means increased risk of loss.
Some time back, Forrester Research conducted a study on how well prepared businesses were in the event of a disaster. The conclusion was that an astonishing 66% of businesses with less than 100 employees had nothing rigorous in place to cope with technology issues such as downed servers or networks. Moreover, the SMBs were not ready for external emergencies such as power outages or strike action.
In this e-guide, you’ll consider:
- the potential costs of short and long-term disruptions
- why so many SMBs lack a sound BC/DR strategy
- how SMBs can prepare for improved BC/DR planning
A Comprehensive BC/DR is Mandatory
SMBs often think that business continuity is a problem for big league players such as corporations with thousands of employees. However, even companies with fewer than ten employees need effective BC/DR plans. Without these, the impact of any disaster may result in sky high costs from which the SMB never recovers. Even a few hours of downtime can mean hourly losses of thousands of pounds.
And we’re only talking about short duration downtimes resulting from technology issues or a power failure. But think about the consequences of longer lasting downtimes lasting days or weeks. Not likely, but natural disasters and large-scale acts of terror do happen. Those losses of thousands will become losses of hundreds of thousands.
Beside the immediate and quantifiable costs such as lost revenue and productivity, there are several knock-on effects that are more difficult to quantify. This chain reaction will fuel the fire of total loss in some of these ways:
Customers Leave
The web hosting company 1&1 Internet Inc. reported that a phenomenal 70% of web users will move to a competitor if they:
- cannot instantly access a company website
- encounter too many error messages
- have problems placing an order
- have difficulty accessing online support
Nowadays, people demand an instant fix. If they don’t get it from one supplier, they move to another, taking their money with them. Research shows that a staggering 58% are unlikely to return. Think about the impact of these actions on long-term revenue streams. Some people may be more forgiving if a crisis is beyond the control of the SMB such as a strike or terrorist attack. But there will always be those who leave and never to be seen again.
The Power of Social Media
For better or worse, social media is here to stay. Annoyed clients or customers will take to Facebook or Twitter to vent their frustration or annoyance resulting from downtime. Maintaining a good reputation and building and consolidating a brand are vital to SMBs for success. One post or tweet is all it takes to cause a long lasting string of negative publicity.
Dissatisfied IT Support
SMBs often employ a single individual for in-house technology and IT systems management. This employee is usually over-worked, and stretched beyond the call of duty, working overtime and weekends. If this employee is too busy fulfilling the role of a damage controller, by having to troubleshoot recurring technology issues or constantly working to get a system back online, their expertise is being wasted. Instead of engaging in projects that generate income, they see themselves as the IT handyman. The disgruntled individual may decide to move on and work elsewhere. The loss of such a skilled professional will be a financial and BC blow to any SMB.
SMBs Don’t Prioritise BC/DR
Information drives business. Put simply, businesses, small and large, are judged by their ability to efficiently and effectively generate or process data or information they handle every day. This data processing underpins successful business operation, optimizing customer service and interaction.
Prioritizing data protection is a given for large companies. SMBs have the same responsibility but are often restrained by budgets or human resources. Start-ups face an even greater challenge where their emphasis is placed on short-term revenue generation and customer-facing activity, not BC/DR. Consequently, a large portion of SMBs fail to implement BC/DR at a fundamental level.
A 2011 CDW Business Continuity Straw Poll revealed that 82% of United States service disruptions could be reduced or eliminated by implementing a simple BC/DR plan. So what are the barriers that prevent SMBs from taking action and safeguarding themselves?
It Won’t Happen
Many SMBs adopt have a preconceived notion of ‘It won’t happen to us.’ Well, it can and what if it does? Too many SMBs focus on increasing sales and beating the competition and fail to recognise the necessity of a steadfast BC/DR plan. However, to remain in business, SMBs need supportive technology in place to avoid scrambling to recover data when disaster strikes.
BC/DR is too Complex
In order to consolidate expenditure and simplify procedures, many SMBs negate BC/DR tools, thinking of them as unnecessary and complex. In an attempt to streamline their operations, SMBs target sales and customer relations. The handful of SMBs who acknowledge the importance of BC/DR preparedness are often bewildered by the complex jargon associated with business continuity planning. Terms such as ‘risk assessment’ and ‘business impact analysis’ seem as clear as mud.
SMBs Forget MSPs
Owners and management of SMBs realise they are living on a knife edge without having a tested BC/DR strategy in place. However, they forget that managed service providers (MSPs) offer fantastic technology support, reducing costs and saving resources. MSPs can apply their understanding of a SMBs specific needs to trending technologies, cloud solutions and hosted backup and recovery tools that are currently available.
Improved BC/DR Strategy in Three Steps
Step 1: Need and Importance
As mentioned, SMBs place an emphasis on immediate income propagation and urgent business matters. BC/DR planning is often on the to-do list but usually takes second place to issues that are considered more crucial. Based on figures from a 2011 CDW business continuity survey, Businesses in the United Stated alone lose in excess of £2 billion from network outage and downtime. With this figure in mind, is it smart for SMBs to disregard the need and importance of BC/DR planning? The answer speaks for itself.
Step 2: Analysis and Assessment
In our 24/7 based world, constant availability is imperative for success. To reduce or minimise downtime, you need to identify each technology behind each business operational stage. Understanding the technology infrastructure responsible for driving your business, means that you can conduct a thorough impact analysis. Simply put, you’ll have a good idea of the impact on business operations when a specific technology is unavailable – even for the shortest downtime.
A risk assessment is used to determine the factors that could render each piece of your infrastructure non-functional. Risks result from internal or external threats.
Internal threats include:
- application failures
- disk crash
- network and server issues
- disgruntled employees
External threats include:
- natural disasters such as flood and fires
- accidents beyond our control
- power failures
- loss of personal mobile devices used for work
Moreover, our reliance of technology means that SMBs are vulnerable to malware, viruses, phishing scams and other forms of cyber-attack.
Major disasters occur, but not often. Greater risk and threat is posed by everyday disruptions such as equipment failure, lost and/or corrupt data, server and network downtime, and email configuration issues.
The secret – start small and secure. Have in place a BC/DR plan to rectify any disruptions resulting in-house. By documenting, reviewing, communicating and testing how effective your BC/DR plan copes with smaller issues will better prepare your business for disasters – both internal and external –and consequently for longer term disruptions.
Step 3: Use Tech Trends that Simplify
Implementing a practical BC/DR strategy should be simple and seamless. Technologies such as server and desktop virtualization, cloud computing and mobile devices provide effective tools for SMBs for BC/DR planning and implementation.
Virtualization – Virtualization enables SMBs to condense data and applications onto fewer servers. As a result, storage space is reduced, as is power consumption. In essence, virtualization provides SMBs with high availability (HA) without the high cost of building and operating a backup data centre. In the event of downtime, operations can be more quickly restored. This is possible since the whole system is managed by a single container technology compared to a system resource heavy virtual machine (VM).
Cloud Computing – Using the cloud for backup services is now common place for many companies. SMBs are able to backup operations from their primary location using the cloud. The advantage is that SMBs enhance their business continuity processes but at a lower expense.
Business continuity solutions are often incorporated into cloud-based Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) packages. SaaS packages automate data backup procedures either on-site or remotely. The plus here is that risk is spread out and the risk of disaster is minimized. Cloud storage encompasses data, servers, software, apps and tools. So when disaster or a virus strikes, all these assets remain safe and secure.
An added bonus of using the cloud is that a company’s communication and collaboration tools can be accessed by remote workers. This means that when a serious disruption happens, SMBs can rest easy knowing that it’s business as usual.
Closing Words
The owners or upper management of SMBs are reluctant to spend money. However, sound BC/DR planning should be thought of as like taking out a reputable insurance policy. While we all think ‘bad things won’t happen to us’, unfortunately they do. So the price tag of implementing BC/DR planning is well worth it when faced with an unexpected crisis or emergency.
SMBs can provide a cost effective buffer to prevent disaster and safeguard their business operations. This is possible by using trending technology, remote backup, and online services and support provided by MSPs. Inadequate resources or shortage of cash are not excuses for being without a BC/DR that works. What will you do when things don’t work?
