News & Blog
IT systems down - Do you have a plan?
By Francis West on 5th April 2016
It’s not just the immediate financial costs you need to take into account. There’s also the customers that go elsewhere and don’t come back, the skilled employees that are unable to work and the long-term damage that is done to your reputation.
What would be the effect of a whole week without your IT systems? Would your business even be able to survive?
Continuity is key to business success. And nothing can bring your business grinding to a sudden unexpected halt like an IT failure. An effective IT strategy needs to support business continuity when unforeseen IT disasters occur, so they can be resolved quickly or, better still, avoided completely.
Planning for potential risks
Preparing for all kinds of business emergencies, including the ones you think would never happen to you, will ensure your business’s core functions remain fully operational after any unforeseen event. Whether the problem is a result of an IT failure, a natural disaster, such as a flood, or a man-made catastrophe, such as fire or power failure, keeping your business running effectively without disruption presents a considerable challenge.
The first step is to establish all the risks facing your business and the possible impact they will have on your IT systems. Then, a plan needs to be developed that describes how your business will respond to each potential risk. This plan must involve solutions tailored to the needs of your IT infrastructure and your business as a whole.
As well as implementing a plan for business continuity, it is important to test its viability regularly. This helps to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of your recovery plan and ensures that you are fully compliant with industry best practice.
The business benefits of ensuring continuity
Having a strategy to lean on when disaster strikes gives you peace of mind and your business the stability and security it needs to continue functioning with just the minimum of disruption.
As well as maintaining the operation of your business, a professionally devised continuity plan will:
- Identify all potential risks, many of which can be tackled so that the threat they pose is reduced
- Build customer trust in the quality and reliability of your service
- Give your business a competitive advantage and ensure compliance with regulatory requirements.
At WESTTEK, we tailor our IT support to address the specific needs of your business. So when unforeseen events occur, you can rely on us to:
- Preserve all data, including emails, using secure backups
- Protect IT hardware and networks to maintain existing infrastructure as best as possible
- Minimise downtime to enable a swift return to business-as-usual.
Although unforeseen events are, by definition, unpredictable, you can still plan for them. By working with WESTTEK, you will be able to keep your business running smoothly, whatever unexpected surprises the future holds.
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IT systems down - Do you have a plan?
It’s not just the immediate financial costs you need to take into account. There’s also the customers that go elsewhere and don’t come back, the skilled employees that are unable to work and the long-term damage that is done to your reputation.
What would be the effect of a whole week without your IT systems? Would your business even be able to survive?
Continuity is key to business success. And nothing can bring your business grinding to a sudden unexpected halt like an IT failure. An effective IT strategy needs to support business continuity when unforeseen IT disasters occur, so they can be resolved quickly or, better still, avoided completely.
Planning for potential risks
Preparing for all kinds of business emergencies, including the ones you think would never happen to you, will ensure your business’s core functions remain fully operational after any unforeseen event. Whether the problem is a result of an IT failure, a natural disaster, such as a flood, or a man-made catastrophe, such as fire or power failure, keeping your business running effectively without disruption presents a considerable challenge.
The first step is to establish all the risks facing your business and the possible impact they will have on your IT systems. Then, a plan needs to be developed that describes how your business will respond to each potential risk. This plan must involve solutions tailored to the needs of your IT infrastructure and your business as a whole.
As well as implementing a plan for business continuity, it is important to test its viability regularly. This helps to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of your recovery plan and ensures that you are fully compliant with industry best practice.
The business benefits of ensuring continuity
Having a strategy to lean on when disaster strikes gives you peace of mind and your business the stability and security it needs to continue functioning with just the minimum of disruption.
As well as maintaining the operation of your business, a professionally devised continuity plan will:
- Identify all potential risks, many of which can be tackled so that the threat they pose is reduced
- Build customer trust in the quality and reliability of your service
- Give your business a competitive advantage and ensure compliance with regulatory requirements.
At WESTTEK, we tailor our IT support to address the specific needs of your business. So when unforeseen events occur, you can rely on us to:
- Preserve all data, including emails, using secure backups
- Protect IT hardware and networks to maintain existing infrastructure as best as possible
- Minimise downtime to enable a swift return to business-as-usual.
Although unforeseen events are, by definition, unpredictable, you can still plan for them. By working with WESTTEK, you will be able to keep your business running smoothly, whatever unexpected surprises the future holds.
Other people also liked:
1. Our company data is stolen, what can we do about it, legally?
2. The smart Recruiter's guide to Cloud computing
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