Disasters can be both operational and natural, and both can have a severe effect on businesses. Some do not survive the calamity, as statistics indicate that four in every ten small businesses that experience a disaster never open their doors again.
It is also important to note that you should not use business disaster recovery and business continuity plans interchangeably as many think. When you know the difference between the two, you will see why both programs are essential. Here are the main differences between the two plans.
Business Continuity
A business continuity plan is a strategy and the program that a business intends to use to ensure they do not go down entirely in a disaster. Some disasters that affect business operations are things like terrorists attack, cyber-attacks, fires, hurricanes, and floods that can affect the operations of any business.
When a business faces any of these, it is essential to know what steps to take to ensure operation resumes as soon as possible. An extended downtime of your business risks losing important clients or key employees. Also, companies must identify critical assets like employees and IT components necessary for business operation and any other vital items to be part of the continuity plan.
Disaster Recovery
Disaster recovery mainly refers to saving essential Information Technology infrastructure to help recover critical business information. That recovery strategy should also be part of the overall business continuity plan.
Disaster recovery is about securing IT components to safeguard the business information that may affect the business operation when lost. That is to say, a business continuity plan is everything the business needs for operation, including the inventory, while disaster recovery is about information technology. That means business disaster recovery is part of the effective continuity plan.
For any business to continue operations despite a tragedy, it must have both of these two plans in place. Since no one knows when disaster may strike and whether it will ever hit, the safest thing is to ensure you do all it takes to safeguard your business.
Whether you are running a small business or not, disaster can strike any of them, and preparedness is the only weapon that you need to make sure you do not close the doors after a disaster strikes. Criminals are always thinking and planning new attacks on businesses, and operating the business without awareness can see you approach your business when a problem strikes.
Business owners may not know what to do to ensure all the necessary plans are in place. The safest thing is to hire a business plan expert. The expert should help you understand everything you need to put in place to ensure that you do not go down when calamity strikes.
As a business owner, it is essential to know that you should not agree to have just a general business continuity plan without understanding what is covered in the program. All business continuity plans should have a business recovery plan in place.
Call us today to talk more about how IT Ninjas can help protect your small business.
