We all grew up hearing the adage that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link -- and if that link breaks, the whole thing falls apart. In the world of your company’s IT, this is called a single point of failure. Basically, if any “link” in your IT system is vulnerable, then your entire infrastructure may be at risk. In order to avoid a major breakdown of business operations, it’s critical to routinely evaluate what “link” in your IT chain might be your weakest, how it could affect business continuity, and to have a disaster recovery plan to address it.
While each company has their own unique mix of what’s working and what needs attention, there are two common “weak links” that we regularly see in the IT departments we work with.
<strong>1. Single Point of Failure #1: Your IT team is made up of one person.</strong>
That means your company is reliant on just one person whose knowledge, expertise, and ability to troubleshoot can go away in the blink of an eye if they suddenly leave the organization. This can be potentially disastrous if procedures are not well documented or server passwords are lost.
<strong>2. Single Point of Failure #2: Your facility is vulnerable to natural disasters.</strong>
Unfortunately, this is something that has to be considered, no matter your geographic location. Fires, floods, tornadoes and earthquakes are a reality. Though more mundane, so are power outages.
In Toledo, we had a tornado five years ago that resulted in power outages for 12-72 hours. A school was destroyed and many businesses had to relocate in the wake of the destruction. Although the first priority after an event like this is to make sure that our family, friends, and colleagues are safe, the next step is to ensure that businesses can operate as usual. After all, we can’t protect our families and friends if the livelihoods they depend on are suddenly at risk due to lack of proper disaster recovery preparation. This means making sure that data is backed up, employees can access applications remotely, and that there is no interruption in service to your clients and customers.
If your company has either of these single points of failure – a one person IT “department” or a facility that is vulnerable to natural disasters – you cannot afford to wait for one of these weakest links to break. So how can you address this proactively and avoid potentially catastrophic losses?
By moving to the Cloud.
Migrating to the Cloud almost instantly solves the weak link problem. With cloud-based services, your company can deploy applications in the Cloud, provide access to data to your team in the wake of an employee’s departure, and ensure business continuity after a natural disaster. In fact, we like to think of utilizing cloud-based services as plugging into a utility – once you’re connected, you can be as confident in your data and applications as you are when you flip on a light switch in your office.
There’s no reason to wait for a single point of failure to cause an unforeseen and potentially disastrous ripple effect in your organization. By upgrading your infrastructure and moving to cloud-based services, you have the opportunity to guarantee business continuity – whether you're a small company with an equally small IT department, or if you’re faced with the worst case scenario during a natural disaster, as we were here in Toledo. Upgrading to the Cloud offers you security, continuity, and peace of mind -- no matter what.
