The importance of a thorough business continuity plan came to light in difficult ways in August 2017 as businesses in Houston grappled with the damage that a record-breaking hurricane can inflict. Harvey was not discriminating in its destruction, taking out large corporations as well as small mom-and-pop shops.
A business continuity plan is a necessary step for companies of every size. Natural disasters strike, but there’s more planning to cover with a business continuity plan:
Cyberattacks prey on the vulnerable: Many small business owners believe that they would never be a target for a cyberattack. After all, wouldn’t a hacker rather gather data from a big corporation than one with just a few hundred clients?
The reality is that cyberattacks frequently target small businesses, precisely because they don’t have the kind of business continuity plan in place that is able to stop a cyberattack cold. In many cases, a hacker is able to probe a small company’s system for an extended period before striking because there’s no monitoring software that would pick up on an anomaly in the network.
The answer is in the cloud: The idea of creating and sustaining a comprehensive business continuity plan can cause business owners to face a tough problem: how can they manage a program while also focusing on the core functions of their business?
The solution is in managed services. Both disaster recovery and security functions can be handled by a managed services provider, allowing the company owner peace of mind while attending to the execution of core business tasks. Some of the benefits of outsourcing these functions for business continuity include:
A subscription-based pay model allows a company to use exactly the amount of disaster recovery and security services they need. In addition, these fees are categorized as monthly operating expenses, rather than as a single capital investment.
The latest innovations available in disaster recovery and security will be accessible to the company through their managed services provider. The cloud offers small businesses an opportunity to level the playing field with big corporations, which historically could have exclusive access to the latest technology available. Through cloud services, small companies enjoy the best in business continuity features.
A cost-effective approach to business continuity, managed services allow the business owner to access a comprehensive plan without having to invest the resources into developing it in-house.
To learn more about the importance of a business continuity plan for any size company, contact us at Enterprise Visions. We can help your company protect itself against natural disasters, cyber threats and more.