These days, few companies can afford not to prepare for the impact of hurricanes and other unexpected interruptions on business operations, especially when our reliance on technology is greater than ever before.

Steve Bull, COO of eVolution, a Bermuda-based application service provider, spoke to The Royal Gazette about disaster recovery planning and why it's important in today's business environment.

Q: What services do you offer in the way of recovery?

A: eVolution offers two disaster recovery services to our customers - warm standby and post event services.

In the case of warm standby services, email addresses and data are prepared and tested on the evolution platform before a major event or disaster. If a hurricane were to strike, eVolution restores the most current data to allow a business' operations to continue as usual. With eVolution's platform, as long as you have access to the Internet you can use your applications and conduct business from anywhere in the world.

In the case of post event services, businesses can contact eVolution following a major event or disaster and we can set up a temporary environment to help them continue to operate their business.

Q: What can small businesses do in the way of planning a back up plan in the event of a hurricane, water damage, other natural disaster, or a fire?

A: It may sound self evident, but the most important thing a small business can do is to actually have a disaster recovery plan and test it before disaster strikes.

In many small businesses, people often wear several different hats at once and disaster recovery planning can get pushed to the backburner in favour of more pressing operational issues. However, this is somewhat short-sighted when disaster strikes.

A small amount of planning up front can have tremendous benefit when a storm or unplanned business interruption hits and your livelihood is on the line.

Give some thought ahead of time to the priorities of the business. Ask questions like, "If our office is unusable, how do I contact staff and clients?" or "Is email more important then being able to generate invoices?" Once the priorities are set, write them down and let employees know what to do in the event of an emergency. Keep copies of the disaster recovery plan in several strategic locations, such as with a few key employees. The specific tasks that need to be performed will be easily managed if everyone knows the plan and has tested it beforehand. The most common reasons DR plans fail is because they are not properly tested, staff are not involved or educated, the plan focuses on technology and not the core business, and they are not updated as the needs of the business change>

Q: Roughly how much do disaster recovery services cost a small business?

A: An experienced engineer should be able to assist you to preparing a basic disaster recovery plan for a few thousand dollars. It may seem like a lot of money, but there is a cost to not doing business during or following a hurricane because you weren't prepared could be far greater.

Q: Where is eVolution located?

A: eVolution's offices are centrally located in Hamilton with secure facilities at Cable and Wireless in Devonshire.

Disaster recovery plans