Your IT Department

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How we help you recover

We’ve not shied away from the fact no business can be made 100% safe from cyber attack. So you need to be able to recover should an attack occur. And this is where disaster recovery comes i

Disaster Recovery is an area that is often confusing to businesses. There are three terms that often get interchanged. But they all mean very different things. The three terms are backup, disaster recovery and business continuity. Without a grasp of what these three really mean you cannot start to put together a plan for how you’ll recover from a cyber attack.

Backup – This is a copy of your data replicated to another device or location.

Business Continuity – This is the ability for the business to run in the event of an IT failure. You are looking at the minimum items your going to need to keep the business going whilst disaster recovery takes place.

Disaster Recovery – This is everything you need to do to get your IT environment back to the state it was before the problem occurred.

We’re not just talking about a cyber attack either. This is just as relevant for a hardware failure, a break in, fire or flood. Anything that could stop your IT working.

Everyone is backing up. Aren’t they?

When the first computer was powered up and the first bit of information entered somebody asked; ‘what if it goes wrong and loses that?’ And the backup was born! We’ve been in IT for decades. The message ‘backup your computer’ is as old as computers. However some people still don’t back up properly. At home this can be an inconvenience but in a business it can be a disaster. Most of the problems we see are not down to people ignoring the advice. It’s simply a case of not really understanding what a proper backup is. And what it is trying to achieve.

A good backup has some common characteristics.

  • 3 copies of the data, in at least 2 locations, 1 of which is off-site. This is called the 3-2-1 rule.
  • It is tested regularly.
  • And you have a least a reasonable idea of how long it would take to recover it.

Your backup itself is really part of the Protect stage of Cyber Security Framework. It’s the other bits that really sit in the recover stage.

As an MSP we’ll put in place the best possible back up system we can for your budget. If we are managing your backup it will be tested regularly. And we’ll know how long it would take to recover your data.

Business Continuity

What do you really, really NEED to run your business? How long can you live without your CRM? What about email? What about the copies of the invoices from 2017? How about the photo’s from the office Christmas party last year?

Not all of your systems and data are the same. They don’t all have the same importance. Business continuity is about getting the absolutely critical systems for your business up and running as quickly as possible so you can keep running the business.

Many businesses could probably survive reasonably well for a few weeks with email, phone, and there accounting package. Others use computers to control the machinery that manufactures their goods. An hour or two of downtime could ruin six months results. Or lose vital clients.

As your IT partner our part here is in ensuring we understand your plans and that we can implement them in the event of an emergency. We’ll ask for your business continuity plan, keep a copy in our system (so you have a backup!) and check regularly if it has changed.

Disaster Recovery

We’ve already identified you don’t might not need everything back up and running immediately. But you will want it eventually. Your overall disaster recovery plan should look at when you can get everything back into the same state as before disaster struck.

Again we’ll ask for a copy of your Disaster Recovery plan and keep it safe. We’ll let you know reasonable recovery times based on the technology you have. And we’ll make suggestions along the way that might improve your recovery times and guard against data loss.

Making it simple...

Step 1 – Identify the systems and data you absolutely need immediately. Back these up. Have a system to recover these quickly.

Step 2 – Backup the rest of your systems and data. Know how long you can do without these. Have a system to recover them with that time period.

Step 3 – Test this all works. Regularly.

How we can help

If you don’t have IT Support you’re taking the cyber security journey all alone. And that can be lonely and confusing! With a Managed Service Provider like Your IT Department in place you have immediate, emergency response and a partner with access to expertise to remedy complex issues. Should the worst happen you’re not facing it alone. Plus it is much harder to recover from a cyber attack if you only get help AFTER it happens.

Becoming one of our Managed Service Clients starts with a 15-minute call. In this call we’ll find out what technology you have, discuss your current IT issues and talk about what you need from your technology. There is no obligation to move to a full IT Assessment following this call, and no obligation to buy anything, ever. You can call us on 0115 8220200 or complete our contact form and we’ll get back to you.