What does an IT support team do? – Part 4: Disaster Recovery

As business owners we all hope the worst won’t happen. But sometimes, inevitably, it does. And when disaster strikes and your IT systems get hit, it’s down to your trusty IT support team to get you out of trouble.

We’ve covered the basics of what we do. We’ve talked about IT monitoring. And we’ve discussed routine maintenance. Now it’s time for the fourth and final installment of our series on what IT support teams do with their time, and our focus today is on the tricky subject of disaster recovery.

What is disaster recovery, and what kind of disasters are we talking about?

Disaster recovery is all about making sure your business can get back on its feet rapidly if something unexpected happens. This could be anything from a fire at your premises to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Within the IT world, it’s all to do with making sure your IT infrastructure can get back up and running in the event of a disaster.

So what do we mean when we talk about “disasters” in an IT context? Well, you’d be surprised by just how many scenarios there are that could spell major trouble for your business. Whether it’s a straightforward server failure or a full-blown cyber attack, an accidental loss of data or a malicious hacking, it’s vital to ensure you’ve thought carefully about your disaster recovery plan.

Your IT disaster recovery team

Having a strong disaster recovery plan in place is essential to ensure minimum disruption to your business and customers. This will cover everything from emergency procedures to details of your assets and how long you’re prepared for them to be offline. It will also list out the technology and tools needed to recover, along with the contact information for the people you’ll alert in the event of a crisis.

If you’ve thought ahead and enlisted an IT support team, that contact information will be us. We’re here to get your systems back in business and restore your data from backups, any time of the day or night. Not only that, but we’ll be doing a number of things on a routine basis to make sure that we’re prepared if the worst happens, and a lot of this has to do with backups and test restores. These include:

• Checking backup logs to ensure backups are completed successfully and on schedule
• Monitoring storage availability on backup storage and media to ensure it’s sufficient for scheduled backups
• Performing regular test restores of a server to ensure backup is functioning correctly
• Conducting full disaster recovery tests each year, if required
• Regularly assessing disaster recovery plans to ensure they’re sufficient for your needs – for example, making sure they’d meet your desiered recovery time objectives.

Of course, prevention is better than cure, and our 24/7 IT monitoring means we’ll pick up any problems early, so we can nip them in the bud.

If you’d like peace of mind that your business has the right IT disaster recovery plans in place, we’re here to help – whatever happens. Give us a call on 01509 808586 or email us at [email protected] and let’s talk about your specific business needs.

Posted on: 10th January 2022.