Disaster Recovery Planning Step 7 – Emergency & Vendor Information

Introduction

Every Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) needs this; but surprisingly few have it up-to-date and kept at your employees’ fingertips. This is part of your DRP, that all employees should have immediate access to in case of an emergency.

Just knowing who to call when an emergency happens can literally save lives. Don’t keep this part of your DRP a secret.

Prominently display a list of emergency numbers

Most people know to call “911” in an emergency, but you’d be surprised how often delays occur as an emergency unfolds. Sometimes, people do not think clearly and don’t react quickly enough. Help them out by displaying emergency information.

Let’s face it, not all emergencies require police, ambulance, or the fire department. What about electrical, plumbing, internet, HVAC, and facility issues? Problems such as these can shut down your office. Your employees should know who and in what instances they should call if management is not available.

Other emergency information must haves

When disaster strikes, management needs to call important vendors to help in the recovery, such as:

Your Managed Services Provider (MSP)
Business Continuity/Backup Disaster Recovery (BC/BDR) Solutions vendor
For non-IT assistance – office equipment vendor, security guard agency, temporary personnel agency, etc.
Financial matters – your bank, insurance broker and payroll vendor
In certain cases, involving a data breach – local police, FBI, Homeland Security, the NSA, etc.

These contact points should be documented to reduce last minute scrambling and decrease the time to recovery.

People first

Always remember, it is management’s responsibility to ensure that all employees are safe. This must be the focus of your BDR policies and procedures. Test your plan often and keep refining it until you’re sure that employee safety is fully covered.

Data Second

After employee safety, a company’s next most important asset is its data. Make sure you have a Business Continuity solution and not just a mere data backup system. Data alone without the systems to access and use it is useless. Protect your company’s data with a Hybrid-cloud Business Continuity solution.

The Hybrid-cloud utilizes an onsite device that takes images or snapshots of your server(s) at preset intervals, saves those images on the device and simultaneously sends them to two geographically dispersed data centers in the cloud for redundancy.

Should your server(s) fail, the latest image is virtualized on the onsite device and, in effect, becomes a software version of the server(s). Employees’ workstations are redirected to the virtualized server(s) and your company can continue working business-as-usual until the hardware is repaired or replaced.

Should your office get damaged or destroyed, server(s) can be virtualized in the cloud and employees’ workstations redirected to access their data from an Emergency Operations Center (EOC), temporary office or home office locations.

Click here to download a one-page resource showing how the Hybrid-cloud can work for your business.

Conclusion

Not all emergencies are total disasters, but even minor ones need attention. Whatever the case, employees and managers should know who to contact when a situation arises. Emergency contacts should be part of your Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP)—but don’t keep them in a binder locked away from view. Appropriate and important emergency contact information should be at everyone’s fingertips.

Disaster Recovery Planning Step 1 – The Threat Matrix

Disaster Recovery Planning Step 2 – Critical Processes

Disaster Recovery Planning Step 3 – Declaring A Disaster

Disaster Recovery Planning Step 4 – Evacuation Plan

Disaster Recovery Planning Step 5 – The Communication Plan

Disaster Recovery Planning Step 6 – Backup Facilities

XSolutions is an Elite Partner of Datto, the world leader in Hybrid-Cloud Business Continuity solutions whose systems protect 460+ Petabytes of data with over 1400+ employees and 9 offices around the globe. Call (845) 362-9675 and let us introduce you to the ultimate defense against data loss—whatever the cause. Backup & Disaster Recovery | Business Continuity | Data Risk Assessment