Skip to the main content.

Disaster Recovery & Business Continuity 

Be prepared for anything, by planning for the worst. 

Disaster recovery and business continuity (DRBC) refer to practices and processes that help your business recover and maintain operations during a disaster, be it natural or artificial. Though often mentioned in the same breath it’s important to understand the difference between the two concepts and how they relate to your business.

Disaster Recovery (DR)

Disaster recovery focuses on getting your business back to full functionality AFTER a disaster occurs. DR is typically more technology centric with emphasis on restoring your key applications, access to data, and overall IT infrastructure to full capacity. The goal is to keep downtime to a bare minimum and limit any potential service interruptions. 

Business Continuity (BC)

Business continuity is all about maintaining business operations DURING a disaster and focuses more on your staff and operational procedures such as how to communicate internally without internet, or physical preparations for an oncoming hurricane. BC plans also need to account for both short-term interruptions, like a power outage, and long-term, such as a cyberattack or natural disaster.

 

Why it Matters

The speed at which you can recover from or, better yet, work through a catastrophic event is vital for your business. There are the obvious monetary consequences if your staff isn’t able to work but your ability to recover can also influence how your client’s perceive your company overall.

Thinking a fool proof DRBC plan can be thrown together overnight is a huge mistake. It takes extensive planning, staff cooperation, and must be tested, REPEATEDLY. Simply put, don’t wait till the last minute, plan ahead!

Disaster Recovery Compressed

Want to Check if Your DRBC Plans Are Ready? 


Benefits of DRBC

Disaster recovery and business continuity is not all doom and gloom. Implementing and maintaining a solid DRBC plan can help your organization in a number of ways: 

Be a Hero

Like a lighthouse in a storm, if your clients know that they can rely on your business and services, even during a crisis, it goes a long way in terms of building brand loyalty, especially if your competitors are struggling!

Modernize

Traditional technologies like physical servers, desk phones, etc. aren’t exactly designed for mobility. DRBC planning will force you to explore more modern applications like VoIP phones, cloud storage, or hosted applications which offer additional benefits far beyond disaster recovery.

Mitigate Risk

The #1 cause of data breaches is human error. Measures taken in prepping your business for a disaster can greatly reduce this risk. Offsite data backups, for instance, can help avoid a hefty ransom in the event an employee clicks on a malicious link or visits a bad website.

Stay Compliant

If you operate in an industry governed by regulatory compliance, like healthcare or DoD contractors, a DRBC plan is typically required. Not having a DRBC plan in place could result in a more severe penalty and possible legal action.

The Four Winds Approach

At Four Winds we understand that every business is inherently different which is why we take the time to customize every one of our solutions, so they better cater to the specific needs of your business. Our approach is simple yet effective:


Plan

We begin with an upfront meeting to better understand your overall business, budget, and plans for the future. This phase is crucial when it comes designing a solution that both accommodates your immediate needs and can easily scale with your business.

Design

There is no such thing as one size fit all when it comes to technology. We work with you to better understand how your employees’ function on a daily basis and identify any business critical applications and tools to create a solution that accommodates your specific needs and budget.

Implement

Our team of experienced engineers deploy your solution ensuring any new hardware or software is optimized for your environment. When it comes to maintaining your solution we provide a range of comprehensive support services including but not limited to 24/7 monitoring, remote support, and onsite troubleshooting.

 

Interested in Disaster Recovery & Business Continuity?