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DISASTER RECOVERY FOR KANSAS CITY BUSINESSES
THE ONLY ACCEPTABLE DISASTER IS THE ONE YOU PLANNED FOR.
BUSINESS CONTINUITY DISASTER RECOVERY (BCDR) SOLUTION
BE READY FOR ALL THE THINGS YOU CAN’T SEE
When disaster strikes, Kansas City businesses need a plan that goes beyond IT recovery. That’s where BCDR comes in.
BCDR exists to protect organizations from the full impact of unexpected disruptions — keeping operations functional when things go wrong, safeguarding critical data, and preserving the reputation your business has worked hard to build. Done right, it also strengthens day-to-day operations and lowers the likelihood of crises occurring in the first place.
For many Midwest companies, disaster recovery isn’t a foreign concept — IT teams have long handled system-level recovery as a core responsibility. But BCDR casts a much wider net. Beyond servers and software, it addresses the human side of disruption: how leadership responds under pressure, how employees stay safe, and where work continues when primary locations become unavailable.
WHAT SHOULD I CONSIDER WHEN CREATING A BUSINESS CONTINUITY AND DISASTER RECOVERY PLAN?
Risk Analysis
Every strong BCDR strategy starts with understanding what could go wrong. That means taking a hard look at your organization from the inside out — pinpointing vulnerabilities that could bring your Kansas City business to a halt and honestly assessing the probability that each threat could materialize. On the IT side specifically, there are several critical areas worth evaluating to make sure you’re not caught off guard when a natural disaster or hardware failure hits.
Users
Are your users able to work remote in the event of a pandemic that requires they work from home or a natural disaster that destroys their current workplace?
Communications
How will you and your users communicate. Questions you might want to ask yourself include, but are not limited to:
Is our phone system hosted or premise based. Does it allow my users to take their handsets home or is there a softphone feature meaning you can make and receive calls via an app on your phone or desktop?
Is our mail hosted and accessible from anywhere with an internet connection?
Do we have any internal communication and collaboration tools such as Teams by Office 365?
Accessibility
How will we access our data? Are we providing secure, remote access to local, premise-based server or are our servers cloud based allowing us to access our information anytime and from anywhere with an internet connection?
Backups
What sort of backup solution are we using? Does it include versioning in the event of a ransomware attack? Is it image-based or file and folder only? If the local backup is compromised or destroyed, do we have access to our data in a secure cloud environment?
Security
Do we have the proper security controls in place to protect against outside intrusion or phishing attacks? Is our remote access solution secure and do we have enough licenses?
Training
Do our St. Louis employees know what to do in the event of a disaster or do we need to provide training?
IT Method
Is your current IT management provider giving recommendations on solutions that help us reduce our risk in the event of a disaster or unexpected hardware failure? Do they have the proper staffing levels to address all their client needs should a regional disaster occur?
Business Impact Analysis (BIA)
With your risk analysis complete and your vulnerabilities mapped out, the next step is developing a Business Impact Analysis (BIA). Think of it as a structured evaluation that goes beyond dollars and cents — quantifying both the financial consequences and the broader operational effects that would follow if your most essential business functions were suddenly disrupted.
For example, how much would it cost per hour, day or week in the event of unexpected downtime?
This requires you establish a Recovery Time Objective (RTO) for each area of concern. This will assist you in creating a Recovery Point Objective (RPO). For example, in the case of a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) your recovery time objective might be four (4) hours with your recovery point objective (RPO) being zero since there should be no acceptable data loss once recovery has occurred.
Strategy
With your risk analysis findings in hand, it’s time to move from assessment to action. This phase is about taking every vulnerability you’ve uncovered and building a concrete plan to address it — reducing exposure before disruptions have a chance to impact your St. Louis business.
This would include vetting different solution providers capable of remedying any areas you’ve identified as mission critical to your business and its ability to stay operational.
For example, if one of the high-risk items you identified is your backup solution, you should consider Datto as this is a best in class Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BCDR) solution.
Creation and Implementation
With your strategy in place, you’re ready to put it all on paper. Your BCDR plan might take shape as one unified document or a set of interconnected resources — but regardless of format, accessibility is everything. The right people need to be able to locate and act on this information at a moment’s notice, because disruptions rarely announce themselves in advance.
This might include senior management, supervisors and directors as well as any key team members and should include:
- Executive summary
- Command-and-control details
- Plans for employee safety
- Recovery procedures
- Incident response plans
- Crisis communication strategies and tactics
- Processes for getting your business back to normal
Re-evaluate
A BCDR plan isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it document. As your business evolves and new technologies enter your environment, your plan needs to keep pace. Building in a yearly review gives you the opportunity to close any gaps that may have opened up and ensure your strategy still reflects the reality of how your organization operates today.
HOW DOES THROTTLENET HELP WITH MY DISASTER RECOVERY PLAN?
THROTTLENET OFFERS A WIDE VARIETY OF BUSINESS CONTINUITY AND DISASTER RECOVERY SOLUTIONS
CLOUD SERVERS
ThrottleNet’s cloud infrastructure runs on Microsoft Azure, backed by comprehensive IT Management and network support to keep your business running at peak performance. Azure’s built-in security and remote accessibility mean that when disruption strikes, your data remains within reach from any location with an internet connection. With a 99.999% uptime guarantee, ThrottleNet’s Cloud Server solution takes the complexity out of executing your BCDR plan when it matters most.
CLOUD MAIL
Our Cloud Mail solution leverages the power of Microsoft Office365 since it’s not just a mail solution, it’s a true BCDR solution that covers a variety of areas including:
- Teams – Internal communications, video conferencing & collaboration
- OneDrive – File sharing among team members or outside contacts
- Microsoft Office – Create documents in Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Publisher while letting you save your documents in Office 365’s secure hosting environment.
- Mobile Capability – Office 365 allows you to work from any device, any time with an internet connection turning your phone or tablet into a secure workspace and mail solution.
CLOUD PHONES
When it comes to BCDR, few tools are as purpose-built for the job as Datto. At its core, the Datto solution includes a local appliance that essentially functions as a backup server, stepping in immediately during a hardware failure so your team can keep operating without missing a beat while repairs or replacements are underway.
Should a natural disaster wipe out our physical location and the local appliance along with it, Datto’s secure cloud environment ensures your data isn’t gone with it. Your team can reconnect and resume operations remotely through a VPN connection, keeping downtime to a minimum.
Ransomware is another threat Datto is uniquely equipped to handle. Through built-in versioning capabilities, your data is preserved across multiple points in time, so if an attack encrypts your primary backup, ThrottleNet can roll back to a clean version from before the breach occurred, with little to no data loss in the process.
CLOUD BACKUP
Datto stands out as a cornerstone of any well-constructed BCDR plan precisely because it was built from the ground up to handle the unexpected. Its local appliance acts as an on-site failover device, the moment a hardware failure occurs, your entire organization can continue running from that single unit while your primary systems are brought back online.
When a natural disaster takes out not just your facility but the local appliance as well, Datto’s cloud environment becomes your lifeline. All your critical data is securely stored offsite and accessible through a VPN connection, so your team can get back to work regardless of what happened on the ground.
Ransomware presents a different kind of challenge, and Datto handles that too. Its versioning feature maintains a running history of your backups, meaning that even if an attack compromises your most recent data, ThrottleNet can restore a clean snapshot from before the infection took hold, keeping data loss as close to zero as possible.
ThrottleNet is also a BLUE PARTNER with Datto which is the highest accreditation given to their partners
CLOUD DESKTOP
Powered by Microsoft’s virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI), ThrottleNet’s Cloud Desktop gives your workforce the freedom to stay productive from any location, on any device, at any hour, without sacrificing the familiar experience of their everyday workstation.
Whether it’s a personal laptop, tablet, or thin client, virtually any device can be transformed into a fully capable work environment, all while keeping hardware and overhead costs in check.
SECURE REMOTE ACCESS
When your organization needs a reliable way to maintain secure success during a disruption, ThrottleNet’s EverFuel Secure Remote Access delivers exactly that. It’s an affordable option that connects your team directly to your on-premises server environment, no firewall reconfiguration required and no additional VPN licenses to purchase.
IT MANAGEMENT
ThrottleNet’s Managed Network solution puts a full team of local IT professionals in your corner, handling the day-to-day management of your technology environment so you don’t have to. From identifying gaps in your infrastructure to recommending and implementing the right solutions, everything your organization needs is covered under one comprehensive service.
Let's Get Started
We’ll even perform a risk analysis for free with without cost or obligation. Reach out to schedule yours today by submitting the form below or call us us today.
FIND OUT HOW WE SUPPORT YOUR IT EVERYTHING
Don’t wait for your next IT crisis. Contact us today for a free on-site consultation & security report to evaluate your business’s IT security needs.