After so many companies made their employees work remotely after COVID-19, Time reported that it was the world’s largest work-from-home experiment. It is a challenge to ensure that employees’ work is securely backed up and can be quickly restored during emergencies. As TechRepublic points out, today’s organizations must evaluate their resilience and disaster recovery plans due to the proliferation of new cybersecurity threats and challenges posed by remote working conditions.
Regardless of your circumstances, there are solutions you can implement to help mitigate work-from-home risks and reap the benefits of a disaster recovery plan in the long run.
Revisiting Your Disaster Recovery Plans
To effectively support a remote workforce, one of the first steps is to evaluate the solutions you already have in place for backup and disaster recovery. Consider asking yourself:
- Have you invested in any technology tools?
- Are you utilizing their full potential?
- Do you need any features or services that aren’t offered?
You can build a roadmap for how to move forward when you know what you have to work with and what gaps you need to fill. Recovery tools that are designed to be deployed quickly in the event of a catastrophic event should be implemented across the business.
Consider Cloud-Based Backups
Your business’s data integrity is crucial to its success. The importance of backups extends beyond applications and central data centers. Remote workers may save mission-critical files on local computers, especially when they pertain to internal projects or customers.
Does your organization embrace your own device (BYOD) programs, or do your employees work remotely on company equipment? Every scenario poses its own challenge.
Laptops and mobile devices can regularly (hourly or daily) send data to the cloud via cloud-based backup solutions. You’ll have the latest information to use if a device failure or other issue occurs. It may also be feasible to use a centralized set of folders for all files using a file-sharing solution. Using any device with a working connection, your team can access the information they need (so long as they have valid credentials) and eliminate the time spent troubleshooting specific devices.
Power and Network Contingencies
Planning ahead will prevent issues in case your employees are unable to connect to your data center or applications using their broadband connection and VPN. Take into account what can happen if a storm causes cable damage and it takes a couple of business days for the service to be restored.
Considering what to do if your employees lose power may also prove helpful. The power company is often responsible for getting the home office back up and running after a power outage, in contrast to offices with generators. An Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) or a power block is becoming increasingly popular among organizations. If the grid goes down, these can supply several hours of reliable power to business-essential devices. All things considered, you should also educate your employees by hosting monthly cybersecurity training sessions so they know how to keep their systems safe on a daily basis.
At the end of the day, evading these threats may seem impossible, but it’s doable with the help of a reliable backup recovery solutions provider. If you consider switching to remote working conditions long-term, Pathway Communications offers backup and disaster recovery solutions and services. Reach out to us for more information about protecting your data.
