Despite downtime being an inevitable occurrence that can happen at any time, your company can put measures in place to keep losses at a minimum and reduce overall downtime.
This blog is a continuation of our previous discussion about downtime and serves as a guide in planning measures to achieve business continuity and disaster recovery. By following these recommendations, you can drastically reduce downtime’s ill effects.
1. Create a Business Continuity Plan
Having no business continuity plan can be one of the biggest mistakes that you can make. 51% of companies around the world that have no business continuity plans in place. By having a clear set of procedures against disasters and downtime effects, you can assess damage quickly, minimize losses, and recover as soon as possible.
Creating a company-wide business continuity plan is challenging as the different departments make it harder to organize and protect everything under one roof. One solution to this is the colocation of IT resources within data centers. Colocation data centers act as a central point of access to your essential IT resources, and you can benefit from the business continuity and disaster recovery measures put in place by data center service providers.
2. Perform preventive maintenance on equipment
One way for you to ensure business continuity and disaster recovery is by employing preventive maintenance for critical IT equipment. By anticipating material faults before they happen, a company increases overall equipment effectiveness, improves safety, and bolsters productivity.
The colocation of IT resources within data centers makes planning a preventive maintenance strategy easier, as colocation setups come with the advanced maintenance solutions of data center services providers. Beeinfotech PH, for example, employs remote hands maintenance as part of colocation offerings. It includes services such as the periodic health assessment of systems and preventive equipment tests to ensure that everything runs smoothly.
3. Integrate Network and Security Operations Center services for constant monitoring
You can include your preferred Network Operations Center (NOC) and Security Operations Center (SOC) subscription within your business continuity plan to improve maintenance. As discussed in one of our previous blogs, the NOC monitors the visual states of each IT component which helps in preventing errors, while the SOC constantly scans all entry points for malicious data.
4. Subscribe Disaster Recovery seats for continuous operations during downtime
A business continuity plan should include details about the designated Disaster Recovery seat to be used in cases when you have to relocate temporarily due to disasters. Disaster Recovery seats act as your alternate location that has equipment for employees. Data center grade Disaster Recovery seats benefit from redundant power and enhanced security.
Consider choosing Disaster Recovery seats that are in telco neutral facilities, as these allow companies to switch from one connection to another in case a provider goes offline. Our telco-neutral Hive data center, for instance, affords access to all major telecommunication providers, thus ensuring maximum connection options at all times.
5. Colocate IT infrastructure within data centers
The colocation of critical IT infrastructure such as server racks within data centers also minimizes downtime. Data centers possess several Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS) that protect equipment from voltage spikes and provide back up power during an outage. In addition, data centers utilize advanced cooling systems to prevent overheating. Colocation data centers can also withstand natural calamities such as earthquakes and typhoons, further minimizing downtime.
By building on the advice above, you can continue to provide critical services to customers during disasters with only minimal losses.
For more information on how to avoid downtime’s effects, visit https://www.beeinfotech.ph/.