Business Continuity Through The Cloud

Posted by John Feucht on Nov 13, 2014 6:06:11 PM

We’ve all heard the statistics saying that up to 50% of small businesses don’t reopen following a disaster. So, you know how important it is for your business to develop an emergency preparedness program to protect your business and your employees, and to reduce the financial impact of a disaster.

The Small Business Administration has lots of resources to help small businesses prepare for a disaster: http://www.sba.gov/content/disaster-preparedness . Being prepared for a disaster means having a business continuity plan—laying out which mission-critical systems need to be up and running in which order, how employees are going to access those systems, and a timeline for getting back to full capacity.

For most businesses, mission-critical systems involve using computers to access customer records and process transactions with customers and suppliers. If your business lost access to these systems, how hard would it be to function using manual, pen-and-paper workarounds? If your office’s server is inaccessible or destroyed, how will you get that data back? How long will it take to get your systems up and running again?

By moving your servers and desktops “to the cloud,” much of this burden is taken off your plate. Hosting your servers in a secure data center means that they’re constantly available, even if your business’s physical office is under 3 feet of water. Work isn’t saved on your physical computers and servers anymore—instead, it’s safe and secure on your hosted desktops and hosted servers. All you and your employees need to log into your hosted desktop is an internet connection.  Not to mention, email flow will also be uninterrupted.

It’s terrible to think about, but…if your office is destroyed by a fire, you can log on from home or anywhere with internet to keep business afloat as you rebuild. If your office is victim to a larger natural disaster, you can keep business running as soon as internet service is restored. Your customer data, files, financial information, everything is safe in a data center. All the programs you need are already installed on your hosted desktop, that’s where all your information is stored already. So whenever disaster strikes, there's at least one thing you don't have to worry about.  You’ll be up and running fast.

To learn more about hosted desktops, check out our Hosted Desktop Datasheet!Hosted Desktop Datasheet

Topics: IT advice for small business owners

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