In talking about disaster recovery plans (DPR), it’s best to illustrate with real-world scenarios to help you understand things better. They offer concrete examples of successes and failures, and you can learn a lot from them. Here’s an example of a DPR audit and the lessons it offers.

Almost every modern mobile device allows you to send and receive emails, download and upload media files, store data, and even close business deals. As mobile devices have become indispensable in everyone’s personal and professional life, the security risks have also increased — and backing them up has become more critical than ever.

Disaster recovery (DR) isn’t what it used to be. Long gone are the days when a DR solution cost over a hundred thousand dollars and relied predominantly on tape backups. Cloud computing has dramatically changed the DR landscape. Unfortunately, there are still many misconceptions about DR. Here are a few of the myths that no longer apply.

Just because your IT provider has a plethora of awards and certifications under its belt doesn’t mean that you can blindly hand over your business’s future to them. Often times, there are some aspects in your business continuity plan that tend to be overlooked by your provider.

No company is completely safe from data breaches. For proof, look no further than companies like Yahoo, AOL, and Home Depot, which compromised millions of personal customer information. That said, no business is completely helpless, either. The following steps can minimize the risks to your business in the event of a large-scale data breach.

Storing copies of your business data in the cloud will help you avoid the risks associated with broken hard drives, lost or stolen devices, and human error. That’s because entrusting your data to an expert cloud provider means you’ll have trained professionals handling the backup of your business assets online.

From CryptoLocker to WannaCry, ransomware has grown in sophistication and scope over the past few years. And given its widespread success with hackers, more ransomware attacks will likely be developed further into 2018. In anticipation of these attacks, many experts are saying that virtualized disaster recovery solutions may be the best way to defend against future ransomware.

IT systems are becoming increasingly complex to manage, so much so that humans alone can no longer make sense of them. As such, there is a growing demand for technologies that can help simplify and automate business IT. According to Cisco, the inception of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning has accelerated that ability even further, leading to outstanding long-term potential.

Disasters can strike at any time, and can put you out of business if you’re unprepared. One way they can do the most damage is by disrupting your Voice over IP (VoIP) systems. If they’re offline, you lose customers, productivity, and money by the minute.

The trail of devastation left by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma has reminded us once again that coastlines and even entire regions of the country can be demolished by natural disasters. While catastrophes cannot be prevented, planning around them with a well-crafted disaster recovery (DR) strategy can help minimize the damages and keep your business alive.