Business Data Continuity

For Business Data Continuity planning and Disaster Recovery Services please call (248) 685-9881.

Several questions business owners and managers should ask themselves:

How long can my business function without access to my data?

  • With no ability to look up customer or vendor balances
  • With no ability to look up contacts
  • With no ability to look up to look up the details on a critical customer project
  • For medical facilities: with no ability to check patient notes, status, medications or insurance information

How long can my business function without the ability to process normal transactions?

  • With no ability to enter or ship customer orders
  • With no ability to invoice customers or take payments from them
  • With no ability to enter invoices from vendors or process payments to them

Most business owners and managers know what backup is and most have some type of backup.  But is what you have enough?  The answer depends on your answers to the above questions.  Let’s explore some typical situations.

You probably back up your data in some way, perhaps a tape, or a portable hard drive.  Whether your data is protected or not depends on how frequently this process is performed.  In most cases, the process happens once per day at the close of business, meaning the previous day’s work is saved, but the current one is not until after the day is over. If you need a document or two, or a single file restored, you can probably make that happen fairly quickly using this scheme, as long as you do not need something more recent than the previous day.

But what happens if your entire SYSTEM crashes and no longer can be operated?

If you have a simple server, the following would need to take place:

  • Assemble and configure new server hardware
  • Install and configure the operating system
  • Install and configure all of your applications (accounting, word processing, etc.) which can be a large collection of software (Do you still have the installation CD’s?)
  • Restore the data from the backup media, being sure to get each in its proper location.
  • Test and fix issues that occur because they will

(This process can take an entire day, probably longer).

Suppose you have a more complex configuration, such as one in which all of your data is processed using Microsoft SQL Server.

The process then becomes:

  • Assemble and configure new server hardware
  • Install and configure the operating system
  • Install and configure all of your applications (accounting, word processing, etc.) which can be a large collection of software (Do you still have the installation CD’s?)
  • Assemble and configure the server hardware for the SQL server (which is usually running on a separate server)
  • Install MS Windows Server
  • Configure Windows
  • Install MS SQL Server
  • Configure SQL Server, including recreating all of the databases, users, rights, etc
  • Restore the data from the backup medium
  • Test and fix errors which occur

This process can take SEVERAL DAYS to complete.

And then ask yourself,  “What if the building were to be totally destroyed?  Do I STILL have protection?”

Watch the video again.  Then do what it says.