All too often, businesses approach emergency response, disaster recovery, and business continuity planning in the context of the “worst-case scenario,” which usually takes the form of some natural disaster that destroys an entire facility. Although it’s a worthwhile exercise to prepare for such a scenario, that preparation may not apply to less-destructive emergency situations.

Modern businesses rely on a vast array of internal and external infrastructure systems, including energy, ventilation, and data networking systems; software systems, both in local data centers and the cloud; and machines, vehicles, and other equipment to support their operations.

How an organization responds in the first 24 hours of an emergency can make the difference between minor issues and full-blown catastrophes. It’s critical to have a thorough, integrated notification system in place to help employees understand when an incident occurs, the scope of the damage, and what steps to take to remediate the issue.

Ransomware is a type of cyber-attack that involves hackers encrypting a victim's data and demanding a ransom in exchange for the decryption key. Ransomware attacks have been on the rise in recent years, with 2021 seeing over 623 million ransomware attacks worldwide.

While there are many different types of disasters that can strike your company’s IT network, nothing is as frightening as a ransomware attack. Ransomware is a general term used for any kind of malicious software, or malware, that disrupts key systems until you pay off a ransom.

In May 2021, the Colonial Pipeline, which transports gasoline and other fuels from Texas to New York, was hit by a ransomware attack. which resulted in the shutdown of the pipeline, caused fuel shortages, and gas prices spiked in several states. The company ultimately paid a ransom of around $4.4 million to the hackers to regain access to its systems.

As much as we might wish otherwise, mission-critical emergencies can and do happen. While the initial focus is on correcting the problem, it's also essential to do a postmortem of what occurred. This means you look at what went wrong and determine if the situation was avoidable or inevitable.

In the IT world, new processes and solutions are released every day that promise to overhaul systems, streamline activities and generally make life easier for the department. But the problem is these disparate plug-and-play patches are often not designed to serve as holistic solutions.

No one wants an emergency to delay or completely halt daily operations. But even with a state-of-the-art IT department, this reality can’t be completely avoided.

You’re an IT service provider with a client account where a critical server that manages payment processing just crashed. You need to get that server operational immediately. And every minute that it’s down can represent thousands in lost revenue for your client.

You’ve been brought on as an outside IT provider. Your company’s primary purpose is to oversee routine IT needs. But more importantly, you’re the first line of defense if your client’s system crashes, experiences an outage, or any other issue that interrupts routine or critical operations.

Disaster recovery planning is a set of business practices that allow an organization to defend against downtime, ensure stability, and mitigate problems during IT-related events.

When you think of a cyberattack, you might think of a basement-dwelling teenager spending hours trying to break into business networks.

Cyber security isn’t just a matter of IT. Adequate security relies on system-wide coordination among people and processes, touching every aspect of IT administration.

Compared to the previous years, 2021 saw a significant increase in cyberattacks. IoT rose by 6%, cryptojacking rose 19%, and ransomware attacks rose by a staggering 105% between 2020 and 2021. Regardless of the size of a company, having adequate cybersecurity equipment and protocols is essential for any successful business. 

IT downtime is a certainty in any business. Even with advanced cybersecurity planning and ironclad disaster recovery tools, most companies will eventually need to contend with a loss of system operation.

Famed American poet Robert Frost wrote “good fences make good neighbors” in his 1914 poem, “Mending Wall.” While the literati might like to spend countless hours parsing every word in that phrase, we’re taking it more literally.

Anyone who's ever worked in a client-facing role knows that contrary to the adage, silence is not golden. Client relationships — especially contractual obligations and expectations for deliverables — require healthy and effective communication.

“If you have ten priorities,” a wise person once said, “then you have no priorities.” Nowhere is this more true than in the world of IT incident management. All IT incidents are a top priority–to the people affected by them. 

In a perfect world, companies would never experience business relationships with service providers, vendors, or even clients where a disconnect occurs. Instead, everyone would be in sync, and as a result business would run smoothly. The reality, however, can be quite different.