The Surfside Building collapse in Miami killed at least 94 people and sent dozens more to the hospital. The 12-story building collapsed in June, and investigators are still trying to pinpoint what led to the deadly event.
There is another group of victims in this disaster—small businesses. In fact, more than 90 small businesses have been impacted by physical closures of storefronts and roads during the Surfside Building collapse’s rescue and recovery process.
What should your small businesses take away from this disaster, and how can you prepare to keep operations up regardless of your circumstances?
The Importance of Preparing a Disaster Recovery Plan
A disaster recovery plan is a simple document that can quite literally save your small business in the event of a disaster. When catastrophe strikes, emotions are typically too high to appropriately facilitate and organize the kind of reactions that will save your business.
This is why it should all be well laid out ahead of time. Your disaster recovery plan will detail how your SMB will recover from catastrophe. After ensuring all employees are safe after a disaster strikes, implementing the disaster recovery plan should be your first order of business.
Implementing Cloud Solutions
Cloud solutions and infrastructure that support remote work is a key part of a business disaster recovery plan—this ensures that no matter what happens to your physical location, your team can continue running your business despite all circumstances to minimize downtime, losses, and customer frustration.
Regularly Backing Up Data
Natural disasters can wreak havoc on your physical records and machines. This is why you must ensure data is backed up regularly. There are a few data backup methods you should be taking advantage of, including:
- Disk backup
- Online/cloud backup
- Vendor “cloud-based” backup
Off-site backup is another critical element that protects your data and systems from physical damage incurred by natural disasters or catastrophes. Storing your data off-site keeps it safe from any kind of disaster, from a fire to a flood to a building collapse. A disk-based cloud server will automatically transfer your data to an off-site location to ensure total protection and recovery to enable you to retain control over your data within moments—no matter what kind of disaster strikes.
Partner With a Managed Services Provider
If your SMB has lost data due to natural disasters, human error, or cybercriminals, outdated tape recovery methods simply won’t suffice. During these competitive times, no organization can afford to lose access to their critical data — even if it’s just for a couple of hours.
To fully protect your business and customers from such vulnerabilities, you should partner with a managed services provider (MSP) to help develop a disaster recovery plan, ensure data is backed up at least once a day, guarantee your data is always accessible and restorable via off-site data centers, and develop bullet-proof systems to safeguard data in the event of server malfunctions and other issues that knock networks offline. This approach to IT solutions helps your business maintain continuity after an IT incident, natural disaster, or catastrophe.
If you’re interested in learning more about safeguarding your SMB, contact Axiom today. Our comprehensive IT solutions will help keep your business protected no matter what comes its way.