Disaster Recovery

Forecasters are calling it the worst winter for 30 years and it’s not set to get any better until weekend. Large parts of Northern England have already been brought to a standstill because of the volume of snow and the south is set to see the same kind of action. All of the UK has been issued with severe weather warnings and experts are telling people to avoid all travel unless it’s absolutely necessary. In situations like this, the UK can lose £600 million per day because of lost trade and absence of staff. So if disaster strikes unexpectedly – like a UK-wide snow storm – you should hope that your business is covered by a disaster recovery plan.

In the news this week is the emergence of disaster recovery plans in India. After the 26/11 terror attacks on Mumbai, India’s eyes were opened to the horrors of terrorism. Businesses in Mumbai took a long time to bounce back from the terror attacks which indicated a serious lack of business continuity and disaster recovery planning. Now however, there has been a surge in outsourced disaster recovery solutions.

In a similar business scenario, after the recent floods in Cumbria, most businesses have found themselves completely unprepared for a disaster and are struggling and relying on government help to stay afloat – literally in some cases. Disaster recovery planning may seem a little like tempting fate but it really does pay to be prepared!

The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) in Scotland has opened a £500,000 disaster recovery fund to help the businesses in north east Scotland that were damaged during recent floods. Many of the businesses do not have a disaster recovery plan and so towns such as Aboyne, Elgin and Pitlochry were all set to see some hard times. The FSB fund though, will seriously help communities keep on an even-keel business-wise. The fund offers loans of up to £5,000, interest free.

For a disaster recovery solution that can support remote working, you need cloud computing some experts are saying. In the event of a disaster such as floods, fires or even illness, any home device which can connect to the internet can do the job. With cloud computing, data and applications are stored in the cloud so they are easily accessible from remote locations if your workers are working from home or other locations. So if you have a disaster recovery plan, maybe it’s worth looking into cloud computing as an option.

So here’s the last resort and generally the last thing people think of – disaster recovery. When things are going well, we’re generally optimistic to the point of stupidity in thinking that this is the way things will stay. And then generally, that’s when fate heaves a hugely malicious laugh and with wicked glee pulls the rug out from under you. Like what happened with the Sidekick phones from T-mobile recently. Although they did have a safeguard in the form of cloud storage, this too, went ‘kaput.’

Let’s learn from experience. Let’s put disaster recovery at the top where it belongs. Let’s choose more than one form of data storage. Let’s use our common sense.

According to recent research, many companies are neglecting disaster recovery and business continuity plans, considering them a waste of money, time and resources. So, nothing new there then. Most companies seem to picture disaster recovery as a response to floods, power outages, data recovery and the like…well, it’s time to sit up and pay attention because disaster recovery encompasses a lot more than that.

Take for example the new upheaval with PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) and PCI Compliance. PCI can be a vital part of a business continuity or disaster recovery plan – after all, if you suffer an incident of card fraud, not only would you face massive fines, your business reputation will also suffer a serious blow. Yes – disaster recovery is a complete waste of money…because a £60,000 fine isn’t?

Mr Murphy Strikes Again

They say that there is a moral to every story and that was certainly the case for Robert Brantley, MIS director for the Miami-based Hyde Shipping Corporation. Mr Brantley learned the hard way what Elite have known for years – namely that outsourcing your Disaster Recovery plan is always the safest bet. Because if you have on-site disaster recovery then it will draw disaster as surely as the sea draws lunar tides. Mr Murphy’s law strikes again you might say.

In Mr Brantley’s case, his backup system was on-site as were all of his crucial communications systems making a huge negative impact on his business when Hurricane Andrew hit – and then when Hurricane Wilma hit. If Mr Brantley had off-site disaster recovery such as the call centre solutions that Elite offer, it wouldn’t have to be a case of third time’s the charm.

Preparing For Disaster

Recent studies show that the Middle East is catching up and in some places, over taking, Disaster Recovery Planning in the west. I mean, it is the Middle East and Disaster Recovery is a long time overdue there so a huge well done. Maybe it’s time we take a leaf out of their book and take safe-guarding our businesses a little more seriously. With the Swine Flu pandemic wreaking havoc around the world, we need Disaster Recovery now more than ever!

SWINE FLU ALERT SPARKS HELPLINE SCRAMBLE

Primary Care Trusts across the country are rushing to set up new public helplines in the wake of the latest swine flu alert, according to a major UK telecoms provider.

Elite Telecom says it has been inundated with enquiries from healthcare bosses across the country, keen to implement new telephone services to handle the anticipated surge of calls from worried families.

Latest reports estimate that there are 55,000 new cases of swine flu each week and that the virus could be responsible for as many as 65,000 deaths this winter, sparking unprecedented concern from members of the public and health experts.

Few PCTs are prepared for such a high volume of calls and are responding to the situation by trying to arrange new telephone services, known as network IVR (interactive voice response), that will allow them to ensure every caller is dealt with.

Nick Mannion, commercial director at Elite Telecom, said: “Understandably, most PCTs are ill-prepared to deal with a health scare of this magnitude and they are now trying to get their systems up to speed as quickly as possible.

“Enquiries from PCTs have increased four-fold in the past week and three Trusts have already signed up for new helpline services, which tend to be the first point of contact for members of the public seeking advice.

“In this climate of uncertainty and concern, it’s vital that a PCT’s telecoms system can cope with unexpected ‘spikes’ in call activity, so we are also implementing a call queuing framework with the function to inform callers of their queue position.

“We appreciate that helplines have to be bespoke to each Trust’s needs, so each system has the in-built flexibility to forward calls either in-house or to an outside agency, depending upon the nature of the enquiry and the volume of calls.”

Elite Telecom is the UK’s leading business telecoms provider, specialising in the design and build of bespoke telecoms solutions which add value and increase efficiency.

For more information regarding swine flu:

www.nhs.uk
www.hpa.org.uk