Preparing for Disaster Recovery

We don't keep ourselves well prepared for the future, as we believe that nothing bad will ever happen to us; while in reality, worst seems to come when we are most relaxed. What if a sudden environmental, political, cyber, economic or accidental disaster falls on your business? Are you prepared enough to handle any sudden misfortune? Would your information and business processes remain safe, if such a situation arises?

In a world full of uncertainty, one should always be ready to face challenges life throws upon. In short, one needs to be well prepared for disaster recovery. Disaster recovery is not only based on the premise of 'business continuity', but also focuses on the fastest possible ways to recover and get back on the track. Quick recovery is the key, which requires prior planning, diligence and drills. A robust disaster recovery plan brings out a sense of security, confidence and immediate value addition to your service offerings.

A Major Concern for Outsourcers: Violation of Safety Norms by Vendors

With huge competition in cost, more and more vendors are offering IT enabled services like Call Center Services, telemarketing, or Business Processing Services at throw-away prices. There are chances that these low-cost service providers are setting up their operations by violating standard safety norms and regulations, made possible by bribing government officials, etc.

This is a cause for concern and mandates the need for disaster recovery, else it may lead to fatal accidents like fire or loss of life due to poor evacuation plans. While selecting a vendor pay heed to disaster recovery plans to ensure that they are robust and stringent.

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How to Steamroll Faster Disaster Recovery into Your Contingency Plans?

• Categorization - It becomes easier by categorizing your operations as critical, important and non-critical; and cover critical and important operations under disaster recovery plans
• Digitization - You can continuously digitize your critical and important business data and store it at multiple physical locations, and on the cloud for easier access in case of disruption
• Recovery Planning - You must draft a complete disaster recovery plan and make it available to all your resources, so when in need, they can blindly follow set plan amidst chaos
• Disaster Recovery Centers at Low Cost Nations - You can set up disaster recovery centers at low cost countries and immediately rely on them when in need. For instance, if you are running a Call Center in India, you can also maintain a disaster recovery center at a nearby location
• Outsourcing - You can outsource your disaster recovery support to experts who can analyze your business operations and suggest highly customized, robust and cheaper solution without any hassles
• Mock Drills - It is very important to conduct mock drills either at your location or the outsourcer's disaster recovery location to ensure its effectiveness. This is vital, as no matter how many times you do it on paper; you will never know how various factors interrelate. So, mock drills must be conducted as many times as possible, so that your organization is better prepared in times of crisis
• Keeping Disaster Recovery Centers Active - You have to ensure that these centers are always active to handle critical operations. Inactive centers normally take more time to start operations causing severe financial and credibility damage
• Safeguarding From Cyber-Attacks - With cyber terrorism and incredulous hacking bringing down crucial websites and web services on a regular basis, protecting and planning for the worst is imperative. It is advisable to maintain proxy sites where business critical data and services could be run
• Eliminating Decision Making - You have to strictly eliminate the need for decision making during disaster recovery. It has to be pre-decided and pre-planned, so as to guarantee least possible damages

Today, disaster recovery is not just a safety norm; it is fast becoming more of a business standard for companies where agents continuously interact with clients and offer 24/7 support, as in Call Centers. Measures for disaster recovery have to be followed strictly, as tragedies are uninvited and fatal; and the best one can do is to be best prepared.

Learn more about disaster recovery services offered by Outsource2india.

If you still haven't planned for disaster recovery, do it now and avoid regrets. Contact us today.