Business continuity planning is the act of preparing your business to weather any potential disaster scenario it may be faced with. Disasters come in all shapes and sizes, ranging from relatively minor power outages to catastrophic fires, and even the current shutdown of businesses in response to the coronavirus. Total Cloud from ITSG is an all-in-one, cloud based, business continuity solution which will keep your data safe from harm and ensure your employees always have access to the files and programs they need.
Business Continuity as a Service
In the age of “everything as a service” ITSG offers business continuity as a service through Total Cloud. There are three main parts of Total Cloud which keep your business up and running in the event a disaster strikes. These are infrastructure, platform, and software.
Infrastructure as a service
The infrastructure which Total Cloud runs on is made up of virtual remote servers. These servers are what put the “cloud” in Total Cloud. Every part of your business which is online is hosted here. And because our servers are the backbone of your business’ operations, we monitor them 24/7 to ensure your data is always secure and available.
Platform as a service
Platform as a service refers to the platform used by your business which is hosted on the Total Cloud infrastructure of virtual remote servers. This platform houses the software your employees use in the day to day operations of your business and allows access to all of that software in one, secure location. With a single password, your employees can access Photoshop, QuickBooks, or whatever other programs they need.
This single platform also makes collaboration between team members easy. Automatic syncing means everyone, no matter what device they’re using, has access to the most up to date versions of your work and data. There’s also a centralized location for managing access to programs, restrictions for users, and security. And finally, setting up accounts for new users with specific access, restrictions, and security is easy.
Software as a service
Most people are familiar with software as a service. It’s a collection of applications which are hosted on your business’ platform, which itself is hosted on the Total Cloud infrastructure. These applications can either be off the shelf, or custom applications created to solve problems specific to your business. Photoshop and QuickBooks were already referenced as examples of software as a service applications, but they can be anything from billing, to content management, to communication programs.
Security and Disaster Recovery
Total Cloud comes with three main security and disaster recovery benefits as a business continuity system. These include the fact that your software and data are always available, are available from anywhere, and are protected.
Always on
Total Cloud servers are up and running 24 hours per day, seven days per week. No matter when you or your employees need to access your information or applications, they’re available. Our servers are spread out across diverse geographic locations so one event cannot take them all down at once. Further, they have redundant power, connectivity, network switching, and routing so they should never go down in the first place.
Access from anywhere
The ability to access your data and programs from everywhere might seem like a luxury, but in reality it’s a necessity. Often when there are mentions of “access from anywhere” our immediate thought is working by a beach rather than in an office. But the truth is that this geographically unrestricted access is extremely practical for situations such as the coronavirus shutdown we currently find ourselves in when millions of employees across the country are suddenly required to work from home rather than the office. Businesses which don’t have the ability for their employees to work from anywhere are those which are struggling the most right now.
However, access from anywhere doesn’t necessarily mean that all access to your company’s cloud based platform is unrestricted. It can be set up so that it’s only accessible using company provided hardware. This is one way to reduce the possibility of a security breach.
Data protection
Speaking of protecting against security breaches, data protection is another major reason to use Total Cloud. We constantly monitor our servers for weaknesses and update them regularly so your information is always secure. As mentioned previously, our servers are also spread out across geographically diverse locations, so even if one server location goes down, backups of your data will still be available. And it’s these backups which will be most important to getting your business back up and running immediately after a disaster event.
When a disaster event strikes, there are two main phases every business should go through in order to return to normal operating procedures. The first is the immediate recovery of lost data when possible, and the second is the rebuilding phase which includes contacting customers and clients. Without the data recovery phase happening first, the rebuilding phase will be severely restricted.
Conclusion
In order to truly be prepared for a disaster event, you need a service like Total Cloud from ITSG. Total Cloud provides business continuity as a service on three distinct levels, infrastructure, platform, and software, all in one. It also ensures your data can be accessed from anywhere at any time, and that the data can be recovered in the event something goes wrong.
IT Services Group Total Cloud
For a business continuity service you can rely on, contact ITSG today and ask us about how Total Cloud can work for you. We can get your business up and running on the cloud quickly so you never experience costly downtime again.
