Disaster Recovery Plans: Lessons from Bacardi

 

In order to increase the odds that your business will survive a disaster, you need to develop a comprehensive disaster recovery plan. Your disaster recovery plan will be part of your larger business continuity plan, in which you map out how you’ll get your business up and running again after all kinds of major problems, ranging from violent storms to cyber-attacks.

Without a disaster recovery plan in place, you can experience a number of serious problems, including massive data loss and prolonged loss of access to your network.

But what makes for a strong disaster recovery plan?

Lessons from Bacardi

Some lessons for a solid plan can be found in a recent  article  on Bacardi, the spirits company that has its headquarters and important business operations in Bermuda.

Given that the island is regularly threatened by powerful hurricanes, how does the company prepare for the possibility of disaster? What measures does it have in place to protect employees and back up data?

Some of the measures discussed in the article include the following:

  • Providing employees with a reliable means to communicate with each other even during a storm, in order to give each other updates on their personal safety and also on the company’s functioning and any losses experienced (the sooner one knows about the losses, the faster and more targeted the response can be).
  • Not only backing up important data, but making sure to have backups on secure off-site locations. (Cloud technology has helped make this much easier to do.)
  • Selecting more resilient hardware and infrastructure. For example, various communications cables and the power supply to their headquarters are underground, increasing the chances of preservation during regular violent storms.

The types of disaster recovery measures you select for your business will depend on your budget and on your business needs. Regardless of the specifics, it’s crucial to have a disaster recovery plan in place that allows you to retrieve data and restore functioning with as much ease and speed as possible. Be sure to contact us for advice on formulating or strengthening your recovery plan.