Many small- to medium-sized business (SMB) owners never expect a major crisis to hit their company and are often caught flat-footed when it does. Such events can cause downtime, which can lead to lost revenue and reduced profits. In addition, SMBs that fail to recover quickly from disruption face the risk of losing their customers to their competitors.

More than being a global health crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic is also upending the global economy. Many businesses find themselves facing the grim reality that if they don’t find a way to adapt to the crisis, they’ll end up closing their doors for good.

Unforeseen disasters can strike at any time, and when they do, your business could come to a grinding halt. Having a business continuity plan could prevent this from happening by securing your valuable business data at another location. But all too often, data backup can be too complicated for the average IT personnel to manage.

More and more healthcare organizations are turning to managed services providers (MSPs) for their IT needs. This lets hospitals and clinics focus on being healthcare providers and not on being ad hoc IT professionals learning on the fly.

Here are some things to look for in a managed services provider before you consider partnering with one.

Business continuity plans are designed to protect an organization's critical data in case of a crisis, but employees are also a part of that equation. If you want a strong business continuity plan, it’s imperative you avoid the following mistakes.
Mistake #1: Failing to plan for employees
Companies that survive unexpected incidents are the ones that thought about their employees’ needs.

Any business owner worth their salt knows the value of data to business. This is why it’s bizarre that many business owners don’t have a proper data backup strategy in place. Organizations of all sizes need to take a proactive approach to backing up their data, and there are several solutions they can implement to do that.

The amount of data that the average business manages is unprecedented. And with that shift comes an unavoidable challenge: Deciding which files and records are most important to business continuity. However, with a little creative thinking and implementation, you can ensure the security of your most critical data.

In 2018, eight hurricanes left a trail of devastation that destroyed homes and businesses. Things aren’t looking bright in 2019, as experts have warned that major hurricanes will likely occur this year, too. Businesses looking to avoid the effects of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma from years past must build a solid disaster recovery (DR) plan — now.

The popularity of ransomware like WannaCry and Petya has encouraged cybercriminals to develop prepackaged malware to sell on the black market. This means more ransomware attacks will hit unprepared targets in the years to come. To protect your business, you need virtualized disaster recovery (DR) solutions.

Working with a reliable managed services provider (MSP) doesn’t just help you comply with healthcare regulatory authorities when it comes to securing data. It also provides hassle-free staffing services for workflow efficiency, increased staff productivity, improved customer relations, and more.