SmartBiz IT Research Library

For small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), the impacts of a disaster can result in loss of or lack of access to data, applications, and work facilities.

While the business impacts of disasters--such as the loss of data and communications infrastructure, leaving a business unable to function--are widely understood, SMB have been slower to develop disaster recovery plans as compared to larger organizations. But that appears to be changing. According to the Yankee Group's 2006 U.S. Small and Medium Business IT Survey, after security the other major concerns of SMBs are now backup and restore and then application and data availability. People, processes, training, and planning are also part of effective disaster preparedness.

This paper explains five key steps to consider when implementing a program for your company:

• Understand what data and systems are critical to business continuity
• Identify and fix single points of failure in your network, business processes, and people
• Create a workforce continuity plan
• Create a disaster recovery plan
• Train your staff on disaster response