When Disaster Strikes, Will Your Business Survive?

Why Disaster Recovery Matters

What Keeps Business Owners Awake at Night

• Ransomware attacks: Can you recover without paying?
• Hardware failures: What if the server dies?
• Human errors: Someone deleted the wrong file/database
• Natural disasters: Fire, flood, power failure
• Cyberattacks: Data breach or system compromise
• Employee departures: Taking knowledge with them

The Reality: 60% of businesses that lose their data shut down within 6 months.

Common Myths About Disaster Recovery

"We have backups, we're fine"

When did you last test restoring from backup? Where are the backups stored? How long would a full restore take?

"We're too small to be a target"

Ransomware doesn't care about company size. Small businesses are often easier targets.

"The cloud is our backup"

Cloud services can fail too. And having data in the cloud doesn't mean you have a recovery plan.

"IT handles that"

Does your IT person have a documented, tested plan? What if they're unavailable during the disaster?

Our DR Planning Approach

1. Risk Assessment

We identify your vulnerabilities:

• What systems are critical to operations?
• What data can't you afford to lose?
• How much downtime can you tolerate?
• What are your biggest threats?

2. Recovery Requirements

We define your needs:

• RTO (Recovery Time Objective): How quickly must you recover?
• RPO (Recovery Point Objective): How much data can you afford to lose?
• Priorities: What systems to recover first?

3. DR Strategy Design

We design appropriate solutions:

• Backup strategy: What, when, where, how
• Replication: Real-time copies for critical systems
• Failover: Automatic switching to backup systems
• Documentation: Step-by-step recovery procedures

4. Implementation

We implement the plan:

• Set up backup systems
• Configure monitoring and alerts
• Document recovery procedures
• Train your team

5. Testing

We test regularly:

• Restore tests to verify backups work
• Failover tests for critical systems
• Tabletop exercises with your team
• Annual full DR drills

DR Solutions We Implement

Backup Solutions

Azure Backup

• Cloud-based backup for servers and data
• Encrypted, secure, off-site
• Long-term retention at low cost

File Syncing

• Real-time file replication
• Version control and recovery
• Protection against ransomware

Database Replication

• Continuous replication of critical databases
• Quick recovery for data-driven applications

Business Continuity

High Availability

• Redundant systems for critical applications
• Automatic failover when primary fails
• Minimal downtime

Cloud DR

• Entire infrastructure replicated to cloud
• Switch to cloud when on-premises fails
• Pay only when you need it

Documentation

• Recovery runbooks
• Contact lists
• Vendor information
• System diagrams

Recovery Scenarios

Ransomware Attack

1. Isolate infected systems
2. Assess scope of infection
3. Restore from clean backups
4. Verify no backdoors remain
5. Implement additional security

Server Failure

1. Confirm scope of failure
2. Failover to backup systems (if configured)
3. OR restore to new hardware
4. Verify data integrity
5. Resume operations

Accidental Deletion

1. Identify what was deleted and when
2. Restore from most recent backup
3. Verify restored data is correct
4. Implement safeguards to prevent recurrence

Cost of Downtime

Example: Professional Services Firm

• Revenue per day: $10,000
• Cost per hour of downtime: $416
• Cost of one day outage: $10,000
• Cost of one week outage: $50,000 (plus reputation damage)

DR Investment: $5,000 setup + $500/month
Insurance Value: Priceless

What's Included

Comprehensive DR Plan

• Risk assessment report
• Recovery procedures documentation
• Contact lists and escalation paths
• System inventory and dependencies

Implementation

• Backup system setup and configuration
• Testing and validation
• Team training
• Ongoing monitoring

Ongoing Support

• Monthly backup verification
• Quarterly restore tests
• Annual DR drill
• Plan updates as systems change

Recovery Time Examples

Without DR Plan:

• Assessment: 4-8 hours
• Decision making: 2-4 hours
• Hardware procurement: 1-3 days
• Restoration: 1-2 days
• Total: 3-5 days minimum

With DR Plan:

• Detection: Minutes
• Failover: 1-4 hours
• Verification: 1-2 hours
• Total: 6 hours or less

Next Steps

Book a Disaster Recovery Assessment to:

1. Identify your critical systems and data
2. Assess your current backup and recovery capabilities
3. Define appropriate recovery objectives
4. Get a DR implementation roadmap
5. Understand investment required

Don't wait for disaster to strike. Plan now, recover fast later.