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When evaluating IT services in San Antonio, you should be aware that the best firms emphasize data protection. Businesses that try to cut corners on protecting their data can, sometimes, go out of business when either a natural or man-made disaster strikes. Protecting the privacy of your clients should be a top priority. Here are details about how preparing for a disaster can save your company time and money, as well as your reputation among customers and peers:
The Need for a Disaster Recovery Plan
These days, there’s no such thing as a company that is immune to a cyberattack. In recent years, both government agencies and Fortune 500 companies have been attacked, which means that every entity is potentially vulnerable. The key to making sure your data isn’t destroyed by hackers is to back up data regularly and devise a step-by-step plan for data recovery in the event of a disaster.
Even companies that can afford a certain amount of downtime or even data loss should periodically test their disaster recovery plan. Regular drills that review the procedures during an emergency can only make your company more prepared so that you experience minimal downtime when a disaster occurs. Two key concerns of disaster recovery are recovery point objectives (RPOs) and recovery time objectives (RTOs). RPOs involve temporary backup plans while RTOs measure the number of minutes of lost data.
Another reason why IT services in San Antonio need to at least include a disaster recovery plan is that many times, the root cause of data loss is employee error. It’s not uncommon for a worker to accidentally delete or damage a file that becomes difficult to recover unless you constantly backup your data. The safest solution is to backup data to multiple servers, which ideally includes offsite locations.
What Is Disaster Avoidance?
While a plan for data recovery in San Antonio is essential for all businesses, a concept known as disaster avoidance provides an extra layer of protection. Disaster avoidance, however, is more expensive and may not be affordable to certain small businesses. It’s a more rigorous approach to disaster preparedness in the sense it involves multiple 24/7 data centers working together.
Certain businesses must administer this process to meet government regulations. Hospitals and other businesses that cannot afford any downtime are required to provide a disaster avoidance plan. Smaller businesses that don’t necessarily need to be online, on the other hand, can afford to bypass a disaster avoidance plan to save money, but they still need a disaster recovery plan for their own protection.
The goal of disaster avoidance is to be able to maintain your operation and use applications even during disruptions. Virtual machine migration is a form of disaster avoidance since it can compartmentalize applications and data into segments divided by server partitions. If a hacker penetrates one segment, for example, they will be locked out of the rest of the system.
Conclusion
Your IT services provider in San Antonio must include a disaster recovery program and possibly a disaster avoidance plan. Both concepts will save your business from the headaches that come with lack of preparedness. To learn more about data protection, contact us at ICS and let us explain how we can help improve your business technology.
Further reading
ICS is a Texas-based 40-year-old technology company specializing in Managed IT, VoIP, Video Conferencing and Video Surveillance solutions for US and International businesses. ICS has over 4000 regional installations and specializes in multi-site businesses between 25 and 2500 employees. ICS’s customers enjoy the experience of ICS’s Total Care program which provides clients flat fee services with obsolescence and growth protection. Whether a customer elects to deploy their IT, Video Conferencing or VoIP in the cloud or on the customer’s premise, ICS can provide a full turn-key solution for our clients under one flat monthly fee.