In a recent Business Continuity market survey conducted by OpenSky Research, only 12% of respondents were completely confident that their company is doing enough to protect their IT systems.

Over 80% of companies who suffer a disaster can expect to go out of business within 18 months as a consequence, if they don’t have a disaster recovery policy.

Disaster recovery planning is the process of returning a business function to a state of normal operations. Whether it's a flood, tornado, system failure or human error businesses need to prepare for the unexpected. Loss of important customer databases or other data can lead to a company going out of business, so it is vital to ensure you have reliable backups and a disaster recovery policy. Many companies go to great lengths to protect their physical assets with burglar alarms and other security devices, they do little or nothing to protect their vital data.

Regardless of size, most businesses have become dependent on some form of information technology; everything from processing credit cards to e-mail access to customer support usually relies on some form of computer or network to be in good working order. When emergencies affecting business continuity do occur, it seems that small and medium-sized businesses suffer the most.

If a disaster were to occur:
- Do you have a recovery plan in place?
- Who would be responsible for invoking your recovery plan?
- Do you have a support agreement in place with guaranteed response times?
- Has your plan been tested?

It is vital to test your data-restore procedures. Do not rely on being able to recover data in a disaster without testing: the chances are that you will get caught out when it comes to doing a meaningful restore. Testing the process means you can iron out any problems before you have to do a restore.

David Vallance works with Mirus IT Solutions as their Business Development Manager. Qualified as a Microsoft Licensing Specialist, HP Certified Professional and Cisco Sales Expert, he provides expert IT consultancy to businesses in and around Milton Keynes.

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Please feel free to contact me for an informal chat on 01908 695369, e-mail david.vallance@mirus-it.com or visit our website http://www.mirus-it.com . To visit my personal website and learn more about me and the benefits I can deliver for your business, visit http://www.it-answers.co.uk.

Source: www.articlecity.com