Last week we talked about the difference between having backups and being able to recover. This week, let’s zoom out. Having a backup is one piece of a bigger conversation, and that conversation has a name: BCDR.
What BCDR Means
BCDR stands for business continuity and disaster recovery. It sounds like something only large companies worry about, but the idea is simple, and it has two halves.
Disaster recovery is the technical side: getting your systems and data back after something goes wrong. Business continuity is the practical side: how your business keeps serving customers while that happens.
Think of it like a flat tire. A backup is the spare in your trunk. Disaster recovery is knowing how to change the tire quickly. Business continuity is knowing how you’ll still make your appointment while it’s being fixed.
It’s Rarely a Fire or a Flood
When people hear “disaster,” they picture something dramatic. For small businesses, the real culprits are usually much more ordinary: ransomware, a failed server or laptop, an accidental deletion, a power or internet outage that lasts a day, a stolen device, or a key employee who is suddenly unavailable and is the only one who knows the passwords.
None of these make the news, but any of them can stop your business for a day or more.
Two Questions That Shape Everything
Two questions sit at the heart of any recovery plan. IT folks call the answers RTO and RPO, but the questions are plain enough.
How long can you be down? That’s your recovery time objective (RTO). A day without your accounting system might be an annoyance. A day without your scheduling system might mean turning customers away.
How much recent work can you afford to lose? That’s your recovery point objective (RPO). If your data is backed up once a night, a failure at 4 p.m. could cost you most of a day’s work. For some businesses that’s fine. For others it isn’t.
There are no universal right answers. A law office, a dental practice, and a contractor will each answer differently, and those answers should decide how your backups and recovery are set up, not the other way around.
What a Simple Plan Looks Like
A BCDR plan doesn’t need to be a three-inch binder. For most small businesses, one or two pages that answer a few questions will do:
- Which systems and data does the business need back first?
- Who makes the call, and who does what?
- How will everyone reach each other if email is down?
- How can the team keep working in the meantime, even if it means paper forms or phone calls?
- Where are the logins, licenses, and vendor contacts kept, and can you get to them if the office is closed?
Writing the answers down while things are calm is what makes a bad day manageable.
Practice It Once
Last week we compared an untested backup to a generator that has never been started. A plan works the same way. Set aside thirty minutes with your team and walk through a scenario: it’s Monday at 9 a.m. and the main computer won’t start. What happens next? Who do you call? What can people still do? Where does it get stuck?
You’ll almost always find a gap or two, and finding them over coffee is far better than finding them in the middle of an outage.
The Bottom Line
Backups protect your data. A BCDR plan protects your business. You don’t need a complicated document, just honest answers to a few questions and a quick practice run.
Free IT Checkup
Wondering where your business stands? Northfield Tech Solutions offers a free IT checkup that includes a review of your backups and recovery readiness. We can also talk through what a simple plan would look like for your business.
Request an in-person review of your business IT: https://northfield.tech/free-it-checkup/