Ebook Business Continuity Planning

BUSINESS
CONTINUITY
P L A N N I N G
“ALWAYS BE PREPARED!”
SUMMARY
Business downtime can be disastrous. Working with a

managed service provider, your business can prepare for
the worst. For one, cloud-based backups drive an efficient
returning to business as usual. This ebook examines what
disasters might happen and all that a business continuity
plan can offer.
1.
“Always be prepared” is a familiar saying for Scouts.
These true words can also be a business mantra.
Hardware failure, security breaches, or even natural
disasters are all possible. So, most businesses understand
the importance of backing up data and systems. Yet,
without business continuity planning, recovery is
challenging.
A managed service provider plans for, and supports, your

return to business as usual.
2.
Why You Need a Business
Continuity Plan
Business continuity planning (BCP) prepares your business
to recover after a disaster. It’s about anticipating the
worst, predicting impacts, and planning to recover
quickly, smoothly.
Thorough business continuity preparations consider

staffing, equipment, physical premises, hardware, and
software. After all, disruptions to any of these can cost
your business money. Your business may:
 Lose revenues
 Need to pay extra expenses
 Encounter fines
 See profits drop
 Experience customer churn
3.
It pays to think about business continuity in advance. You
may be calm and collected in a crisis. Good for you! Still,
you’re likely to think more clearly if you’re not in the
midst of a chaotic situation. Working with a Managed
Service Provider (MSP) can help too.
Have You Thought About What

Happens When…
Business may be going great. You’ve read about other

businesses being hacked. You’ve wondered idly what you
might do if a tornado touched down and took your
business out. But, nothing like that has happened to you!
So, you’ve haven’t actually made a disaster readiness
plan.
4.
Start by brainstorming all the business elements a
disaster could impact. Your IT Managed Service Provider
will bring together business stakeholders to run through
different scenarios. For example, what will you do if:
 You are victim of a data breach or ransomware
attack?
 One or more vital systems doesn’t work?
 Your employees can’t access your building?
 Your business loses power due to a severe weather
event?
 Disgruntled employees sabotage your systems?
Even a few days downtime can be crippling. BCP also gets
you thinking about:
 Whether your staff can work effectively from another
location?
 Can their phones redirect to another location?
 Will they be able to access their desktops virtually?
 Can people continue to provide quality customer
service or interact with vendors?
5.
The MSP will ask these questions and more during their
BCP as they:
 Analyze business impact

 Identify critical business functions and processes
 Organize a response
 Run training and testing exercises
You may be reluctant to run your business continuity

team through their paces. Won’t that be disruptive to
business? The MSP will work to minimize interruptions.
After all, it isn’t enough to think about being prepared.
Running tests will also help you re-evaluate your BCP
choices and priorities. This is the ticket to ensuring you
have the best plan in place — before something actually
does go wrong.
6.
Recovery Strategies in Real Life
You can keep your fingers crossed that you’ll never need
your business continuity plans. You can hope only one
small part of your business systems will go down. But,
you’re best off planning for a massive hit. You’ll be glad
you did.
You may already have a plan in place to back up data. But,

do you have a plan for accessing that data and getting
back up and running after a disaster? What if your data in
only available on local devices and the building has
burned down?
You want to have more than one backup location. We

endorse the 3-2-1 backup strategy. This calls for at least
three data copies. Two are local (on separate devices).
The other is offsite.
7.
Still, businesses that backup their data offsite, on tape or
cloned hard drives, may lose data. It’s a question of how
much time has elapsed since the last backup. Sometimes
this is a few hours. But it could be days — costly days.
Business continuity planning will consider how often the

data is created. Frequently changing data needs regular
backing up. For example, a transactions database,
generating hundreds of records hourly, needs frequent
backup. But tax information from five years ago doesn’t
change much. So, it won’t need backing up as often.
Since the backup is offsite, plan also to check regularly

that it’s up-to-date. You don’t want to experience data
loss and then find out your data can’t be restored after
all. Keep in mind too, tape or hard drive backups can be
expensive and are more easily stolen. all. Keep in mind
too, tape or hard drive backups can be expensive and are
more easily stolen.
8.
One more thing, don’t think that cloud storage works as
backup. Services such as Google Drive or Dropbox do
have their uses. They provide online spaces to store data
and enable collaboration. However, cloud storage isn’t
intended as a backup. Why not? Data isn’t always
encrypted. Many users have permission to access the
files. Data can be deleted, changed, or rendered
irretrievable.
Ultimately, cloud-based backup is a more comprehensive

solution.
9.
Benefits of Cloud Backup
Moving to the cloud isn’t for every business. Still, it’s
often a good solution for business continuity. With cloud
solutions, your business can quickly restore lost data —
anytime, anywhere. If something does happen on your
physical premises, your data remains safe in the cloud.
Minimizing business disruptions, a cloud-based backup

solution lets staff continue working from anywhere.
Employees can still access data and applications working
from home or a temporary office.
Cloud backup typically has file versioning in place to make

it easy to retrieve files. Even previous or deleted versions
of files can be accessed. Note: ask your provider about
the time-window for recovering previous or deleted
versions.
10.
With cloud-based software and cloud backup, teams can
continue file collaborations without disruption. A tool
such as Office 365, lets users access email, calendars, and
files in real time, wherever they’re working. Files sent to
the cloud are encrypted, so you don’t have to worry
about security either. The cloud-based backup provider
isn’t actually ever seeing raw data. This also makes cloud-
based backup a cost-effective compliance safeguard.
Partnering with a cloud-service provider you gain

experienced support. Working with an MSP, you gain top
cloud technology and peace of mind you’re ready if
something does go wrong.
Maybe they’ll want to mess with your IT infrastructure

and shut you down. Imagine a denial of service attack as a
bug infestation that is so constant you are driven from
your home. With the boom in cryptocurrencies, some bad
actors want to leverage your computers' processing
11.
power. You’d eventually notice your computers running
slower and skyrocketing utility bills.
Key Takeaway
Planning ahead can help your business get back to normal
efficiently if disaster strikes. An MSP can lead your
business continuity planning and help you determine if
the cloud is right for you.
Disaster can strike any business, of any size. Don’t

wait until it’s too late to approach a managed
service provider. Ensure your business survives,
no matter what happens.
Call us at 442-222-8730!
12.
Brainon Computers
865 Grand Ave

Carlsbad, CA 92008
Phone: (442) 222-8730

Email: [email protected]
Web: www.brainoncomputers.com
Facebook:
13.

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BUSINESS

Business downtime can be disastrous. Working with a

A managed service provider plans for, and supports, your

Thorough business continuity preparations consider

Have You Thought About What

Business may be going great. You’ve read about other

 Analyze business impact

You may be reluctant to run your business continuity

You may already have a plan in place to back up data. But,

You want to have more than one backup location. We

Business continuity planning will consider how often the

Since the backup is offsite, plan also to check regularly

Ultimately, cloud-based backup is a more comprehensive

Minimizing business disruptions, a cloud-based backup

Cloud backup typically has file versioning in place to make

Partnering with a cloud-service provider you gain

Maybe they’ll want to mess with your IT infrastructure

Disaster can strike any business, of any size. Don’t

865 Grand Ave

Phone: (442) 222-8730

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