I can’t think of any businesses these days that don’t have some technological footprint. Cloud computing, mobility and consumerization of IT make it affordable for small businesses to deploy systems that were once reserved for large scale enterprise. With ready access to small business technology, there is also more reliance on these core systems. Small businesses are also targets of cyber attack because they may be perceived as more vulnerable and less vigilant. Also, small businesses may be less resilient to business disruption related to systems failure. To that end, Small Businesses should take every precaution to protect their applications and their data. They should also properly assess their risks and exposure to ensure their IT budgets are allocated appropriately.
What can small businesses do to make sure their systems support the ongoing operations with minimal interruption? Three words…. Preparation, Preparation, Preparation.
Technology Inventory
A good place to start is to take inventory of your systems and data. It is good policy to document all of your IT assets including hardware, networking devices, application software and data so you can have a complete view of your IT Systems. Make sure you include mobile devices, cloud computing or software as a service (SaaS) systems, as well as, custom applications and legacy systems.
Technology Risk Assessment
A technology risk assessment shows where a company is vulnerable to a data breach. It focuses on types of data and how it is accessed, software versions in place and how updates are installed. After taking inventory, evaluation, a report showing the likelihood and impact of any identified risk. This is an important tool in assisting companies in budgeting efforts to lower the impact of an event. A good risk assessment identifies as many possible business impacting events which feeds into the Disaster Recovery and Business Recovery plans.
Disaster Recovery (DR) and Business Continuity (BC)
Disaster Recovery is the effort to get a company back to full operations after an incident that fully or partially negatively impacts those operations. Causes can include a power outage, severe weather, cyber attack or data loss. An often overlooked part of a DR plan includes criteria for when to activate it and internal and external communication plans.
BC on the other hand, are the policies and procedure that go into effect after a disaster event is called and carry the business until the DR plan can be worked and normal business operations are restored.
Teledata Select has experience in performing your technical risk assessment and can work work with you to build your DR and BC plans.
Contact us for more information.
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