What does Business Continuity actually mean?

What is Business Continuity?
While disaster recovery plans cover the steps businesses take to recover, in the aftermath of a disaster, business continuity describes the procedures that businesses operate in order to ensure their business essential functions can continue during and after a disaster. Business continuity plans allow organisations to enhance their ability to continue business as usual during or after significant disruptions.

3 Key Elements of Business Continuity:

Resilience:

• Redundancy
• High Availability
• Spare Capacity

It is important that business critical functions and the supporting infrastructure are engineered in such a way that they are materially unaffected by most disruptions. 

Recovery:

• Disaster Recovery

Arrangements need to be made to recover or restore business functions that fail for any reason, this is usually where you Disaster Recovery plan comes in!

Contingency:

• Protect against the unforeseen
• Multisite capability (Workplace Recovery)

As a business you need to establish the ability to cope effectively with whatever major incident or disaster that occurs, including the unexpected. Contingency preparations act as a last-resort response for if the resilience and recovery arrangements are not enough. 

What to include in a Business Continuity Plan?

A Business Continuity plan is essentially a document that contains all the critical information your business needs to stay up and running, especially in the case of adverse events. It is vital that you tailor the business continuity plan to the specific needs of your business. A good place to start is by clearly identifying and prioritising which systems and processes must be sustained and provide all the necessary information for maintaining them.

A business continuity plan should also include the following information:

• Employee contact list
• Key Supplier/Vendor information
• Key contacts/Critical telephone numbers
• Recovery Locations
• Copies of essential records
• Inventory of the company’s equipment/machinery/vehicles
• Inventory of the company’s computer equipment and software
• Disaster response plan

Plan for the Unexpected!

Businesses that do not have some form of Business Continuity or Disaster Recovery plan in place are less likely to recover from an event which causes major disruption to business. In fact over 70% of businesses involved in a major disaster either never reopen or subsequently fail shortly after reopening, often due to a lack of client confidence or customers taking their business to a competitor. 

For help creating a comprehensive business continuity plan for your business call Practical Networks on 01723 587240 or email recovery@practicalnetworks.co.uk

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What is Disaster Recovery and Why does your business need it?

What is Disaster Recovery?
Disaster Recovery is the area of security planning that refers to the specific steps that a business takes to resume normal working business in the aftermath of a disruptive event. Generally, disaster recovery plans involve a set of policies and procedures to enable the recovery of vital technology infrastructure and systems, in the aftermath of a natural or human-induced disaster. A disruptive event can be anything that hinders a business' ability to continue its normal operations, such as: a fire, power cut, crippling cyber-attacks, equipment failure, as well as other natural or physical disasters.

5 Reasons Why your Business Needs a Disaster Recovery Plan:

1. No business can continue to function without its critical data, applications and operations. Disaster recovery plans are put in place to protect against this.
2. Hardware can fail, causing service interruptions or data loss. Hardware failure can't be prevented, but you can have a plan in place to minimise the effect it will have on business operations. 
   
3. People make mistakes, human error is one of the hardest things to prevent. It is easy to accidentally delete or change important data, however it is just as easy to back up your data.
4. Nature is unpredictable, severe weather can cause unexpected disruption to business. While you can't change the weather, you can protect your business from the aftermath. 
   
5. Customers want reliable, uninterrupted service! If you can't get back up and running after a disaster customers are likely to look elsewhere for a more reliable service.

Plan for the Unexpected!

No business expects that a disaster will affect them, until it does!

Natural disasters are unpreventable and can cause a great deal of property damage and often leave some economic damage in their wake. Likewise disasters such as data loss, theft and hardware failure can have a lasting impact on your business.  However a comprehensive disaster recovery plan, tailored to your business, can protect against the loss of revenue that they leave in their wake.

For help creating a comprehensive disaster recovery plan for your business call Practical Networks on 01723 587240 or email recovery@practicalnetworks.co.uk

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Cybersecurity set to be big issue for Businesses...

Last year saw a number of highly evolved cyber-attacks and data breaches across the globe, with server vulnerabilities such as Heartbleed and Shellshock taking center stage. As a result of the number of high profile security breaches and cyber-attacks, Cybersecurity has been positioned as a key priority for organisations in 2015.

Cyber-security attacks are evolving at an alarming rate, and so the cyber-security products available to businesses are rapidly evolving to keep ahead of cyber criminals.  Therefore it is more important than ever for businesses to keep up to date with the latest versions and updates of their firewalls, antivirus software, intrusion detection/protection systems, VPNs or any other security they may have in place. On top of this it is a good idea for businesses to reassess their cybersecurity practices periodically to ensure they have the best protection available to them.

Cyber security threats come in a wide range of shapes and sizes, such as; malware injection, phishing, social engineering, internal stealing of data among others. However ransomware has been one of the most common forms of malware used over the past few years, and Symantec’s 2014 Internet Security Threat Report noted that ransomware attacks grew by 500 percent in the latter part of 2013. Scammers also continued to run profitable ransomware scams last year, with Cryptolocker making up 55 percent of all ransomware in October 2014 alone.

With the wide range of security products available for businesses, such as; anti-viruses, firewalls, encryption software, intrusion detection/protection systems, it is easy to overlook the need for secure passwords. Passwords still provide the first level of defence against hackers and so it is still important to make your passwords as secure as possible. So why not make sure your password isn’t on SplashData’s worst passwords of 2014 list:

1. 123456
2. password
3. 12345
4. 12345678
5. qwerty
6. 123456789
7. 1234
8. baseball
9. dragon
10. football

The full list can be found here… “Worst Passwords of 2014”

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BYOD enable your business with VMware Horizon View

In our current device centric environment, end users expect to be able to stay connected to their professional networks via mobile devices and that’s where this quarter’s software pick comes in. This quarter we have chosen to introduce you to VMware Horizon View, a software that provides an agile and adaptive approach to computing, enabling IT to balance business requirements with the needs of end users.

What is Horizon View?

Horizon View is complete solution for desktop and application virtualisation, brought to us by VMware.  Horizon View offers organisations the flexibility to meet the needs of a mobile and global workforce, all while maintain extremely high levels of security and control. This is done by placing all of your organisation’s desktops into one centralised managed service, keeping all your desktops in one place where you can easily manage and customise desktops to fit the needs of your end-users.

Transforming your desktops into virtual machines with Horizon View will simplify tasks such as troubleshooting and provisioning and will also dramatically reduce the cost of managing each user desktop.  In addition, as all of your data will be stored on virtual desktops your users will be able to access their personal settings and data from any device, in any location, making for better user experience and increased productivity.

Horizon View is made up of numerous components, such as:

• VMware vSphere Desktop (including vShield Endpoint)
• VMware vCenter Server Desktop
•  Horizon View Manager
•  VMware ThinApp
•  Horizon View Persona Management
•  Horizon View Composer
•  Horizon View Client

This combination of components allows Horizon View to provide you with secure, compliant and easily manageable virtual desktops throughout your organisation.

The Benefits

Desktop virtualisation with Horizon View offers numerous benefits to organisations of all shapes and sizes. These benefits include:

Horizon View is the only end-to-end solution that simplifies IT management, increases security and increases control of end-user access while decreasing costs by centrally delivering desktop services from your cloud. For more information about VMware Horizon View you can download the datasheet here, alternatively contact Andy on 01723 587240.  

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3-2-1 Protect your Data!

 The 3-2-1 Backup Rule from Practical Networks

Data-loss is a major disaster for businesses of all shapes and size, with 43% of businesses that are faced with data-loss not surviving the hit.  Of the businesses that do backup their data, 34% never test their backups and of those who do, 77% find that their backups are ineffective!!  Data loss has numerous causes with the biggest cause being hardware failure, and with 10% of laptops and 6% of PC’s encountering data loss every year, is your business prepared? 

Data Loss - The causes:

It is important for businesses to have a backup strategy in place and the Practical Networks 3-2-1 rule is a perfect starting point. 

The 3-2-1 Backup Rule: 

3. You should have at least three copies of your data – your primary data and two backups, all stored in different places.

2. Your copies should be stored on two different types of media – ‘Media’ means hard disks, CDs, tapes, DVDs, online backup, etc. Using two or more different types of media will protect against different types of technology failures.

1. You should keep one backup copy offsite – The idea is to keep one copy away from the location of the primary backups, thus reducing the risk of losing all backups. In this case Cloud backup can be a good choice.

For more information about how to backup your data effectively call Andy on 01723 587240. 

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Workplace Recovery - Prepare for the Unexpected

What is Workplace Recovery?

Workplace recovery is designed to prepare your business for the unexpected. Disaster recovery is of critical importance to any business and physical disasters such as fire, floods and lightning strikes are vastly overlooked when it comes to comprising a disaster recovery plan, yet these cause just as much harm to businesses as stolen, lost or broken hardware or data and email outages.

If your business was hit by fire or flood putting your office completely out of use, it will seriously inhibit your ability to trade. Over 70% of businesses involved in a major disaster either never reopen or subsequently fail shortly after reopening due to lack of client confidence or the customers taking their business to a competitor. That equates to one out of two businesses that never return to the marketplace following a major disaster. The businesses that do survive, plan their response to a disaster before it strikes.  Our workplace recovery service is designed to quickly provide you with office space, IT equipment, telephony and most importantly access to your business critical servers and data in order to help your business continue to function. 

Disaster Recovery & Business Continuity

In business, being prepared to respond promptly in the event of a disaster is vital to ensuring you can continue to trade as normal. Without plans in place to deal with emergency situations, the outcome will be devastating to your business. With our workplace recovery service it is easy to keep your business prepared for the unexpected, and your critical operations running as normal.

With one in five businesses suffering a major disruption to business every year, can you afford to be unprepared?  Our workplace recovery service can be completely tailored to meet the specific requirements of your business.

What Practical Networks Workplace Recovery has to offer?

Practical Networks has many years’ experience working with businesses of all shapes and sizes, so you can rest assured that whatever the disaster, we will have your critical operations up and running as quickly as possible.

The Workplace Recovery services on offer include:

•    Access to your business critical data and email
•    High speed internet access with enterprise firewall security.
•    Pre-equipped workstations
•    Dedicated rack space and cooling.
•   Telephony, including DDI and VOIP
•    Secure Server rooms
•     Fax, print and copying
•     Full onsite technical support
•     Easy access and onsite parking
•     Fax, print and copying
•     Meeting rooms
•     Secure storage
•      Kitchen facilities

Expect the Unexpected!

Physical or natural disasters are often overlooked in disaster recovery plans, yet there are a number of events that can put your office out of use such as:

• Fire
• Flood
• Lightning strikes affecting communication
• Theft or vandalism
• Severe weather

Natural disasters can cause a great deal of property damage and often leave some economic damage in their wake. The severity of the aftermath largely depends on the resilience of the affected party.

Reputation, Compliance & Delivery of Service

Customers expect to be able to deal with organisations during normal working hours and any drop in this service can damage the reputation of your business. The inability to operate can have a negative effect on your customers and their likelihood to remain loyal. Also with customers continually expecting more and more from the companies they work with, resilience is an important business trait to have.

A resilient workplace recovery strategy can be an integral element of meeting industry regulations. A number of industry governing bodies require a plan of continuous service and delivery at all times.

Our workplace recovery will help your business reputation stays intact, by ensuring you can maintain critical operations in times of crisis, while also helping you to meet industry regulations.

Is your business prepared for the unexpected? If not, we are on hand to provide a tailor made solution to meet your requirements.  For more information or to discuss your requirements call Andy on: 01723 587240 or email recovery@practicalnetworks.co.uk

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