Modern disaster recovery looks nothing like the daunting 300 page manuals of just a few years ago. Old disaster recovery plans invoke images of stacks of cash and complexity like playing Jenga blind. Unfortunately, the reality is most organizations don’t have a disaster response plan. There is no budget for the worst case scenario, more pressing business issues are always pushed to the forefront, and two weeks is generally the estimated delivery of replacement equipment and restoration. Few organizations face the reality that:

1. Often just one month of lost revenue likely means bankruptcy
2. Disaster recovery implementation can be done in steps

Now we’re going to reveal an industry secret of how we run our business for vendor due diligence compliance for our bank, healthcare, and government customers. This is also the same process we use to help customers achieve modern disaster recovery for half the cost and complexity of legacy alternatives.

First, we moved our websites externally to Network Solutions. The following year email, messaging, and all corporate data was moved to Office 365. Subsequently, we established an Azure subscription and enabled Dirsync for single password access to our network and the cloud. This year, we implemented RemoteApp for accounting and a virtual domain controller at Microsoft.

For any type of disaster, our staff can securely access systems anywhere there is Internet access. Systems are protected by Federal Information Security compliance and security audits. In the event that corporate facilities are destroyed, staff assist customers as normal. The only failover is switching customer’s online backup to replicated storage. Management and administrative personnel just have the additional burdens of purchasing new facilities, equipment, furniture, and office supplies. With the new facilities operational, a site to site VPN to Azure is established and new workstations and servers are deployed. Unlike traditional disaster recovery plans, recovery is not dependent upon the specialized knowledge of a few individuals, there is no complicated restore, and vendors may assist in accessing systems as necessary. Most importantly, customers are not impacted and revenues continue to flow.

So what are you telling your best customers about your disaster response plans? Contact us, we can help.

Published by Kevin Fream

Many people don't understand their current situation and become frustrated in business and life, so I created the Delta Method and wrote the #1 Best-Seller "Change Your Game" - as featured at Harvard and NASDAQ as well as national TV news. Streamline your technology for competitive advantage using vetted IT support and take a divergent approach to personal growth. View all posts by Kevin Fream