In the modern arena, accounting is executed mostly using computerized devices in the form of digital data and applications. One can consider email as a secure method of exchanging the accounting files, and password protection of the local machine ensures they are safe.
As a precautionary measure, one might even be maintaining backup on the physical hardware as well. So, the things will remain up and running for an accounting firm unless a fire, a storm, or such a disaster takes the entire building as its casualty.
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What’s Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery Plan
Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Plans (DRP) are backup strategies to reinstate the data and applications at the earliest and with the minimum loss during the event of a disruption.
Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery Plan will aim to keep the most recent version of applications and data on a remote site that can allow quick access when the need arrives.
Why Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery Plan
Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery is important for your accounting firm because some disasters are inevitable, and you do not want the work to suffer when any such disaster impacts your business.
Operations of accounting firms depend extensively on IT resources such as the client’s accounting data and a number of business, tax, and accounting applications that are installed on the local machines.
When an unwanted event strikes that damages local machines, the entire IT structure (data and applications) are supposedly lost if a proper and secure backup is not made available.
Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery Plan maintains the backup of an accounting firm data on an offsite server retrieve data it even when the disaster disrupts the entire local branch of the accounting firm. So, the losses with operations can be minimized.
How to Get It?
You can plan and deploy a Disaster Recovery solution for your accounting firm on your own or can even opt for a third-party DR service. Going on your own, you need to follow certain steps:
1. Analyzing, Planning & Management
To begin with the DR solution, you must gain the right analysis of the IT requirements (backup speed, storage space, installed application, etc.) that your accounting firm needs and what could be the effects of possible disasters on those resources. Accordingly, layout a DR plan and management structure.
2. Storage & Server
After the requirement analysis, backup storage needs to be developed, where all the important data and application logs need to be backed up. Storage space and other server resources are also determined by the recommendations of the analysis team.
The use of cloud technology can offer automated and regular backups. The data is stored at geographically isolated data centers so as to safeguard them from any accidental losses or thefts at the office location.
Moreover, most of the cloud hosting providers ensure redundancy of information by storing information at more than one offsite server farms. Hence, the business data can be retrieved even if one of the centers is down for maintenance.
3. Networking
The backups are stored at a remote site so that it remains safe even when the local site is tormented. So, the networking between the two sites needs to be maintained to update the backups as instantly as required by the firm.
Most accounting firms may find a daily backup at the end of the day pretty acceptable, but the logs for certain applications need to be more recent.
4. Threat Protection
Protection of the backed up data is as much critical as the original data. To maintain the best security standards with the backup servers, usual security practices such as – firewall, Anti-theft intrusion system, antivirus, etc. must be properly implemented.
5. Automation & Accessibility
The issues that your analysis team suggested the possibility of during the event of a disaster may actually come true and harm your accounting firm’s operations. But if you get a rightly automated and easily accessible DR solution in action, your accounting firm will be back into action very soon.
There is More to It
For those accounting firms that do not take pleasure in handling their IT operations, Disaster-recovery-as-a-Service is available from third-party service providers. Their expertise with cloud and related services enable them to deploy a fine DR solution for your firm within minutes.
What’s even better is that they offer drills and testing solutions at the user end. So, you can run the disaster situation check to ensure the authenticity of the adopted solutions.
Check out how Ace Cloud Hosting can implement BCDR (Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery) options. Call our Solutions Consultant at 855-363-0916 to know more.
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Comments (1)
Once you start moving your business to cloud, you keep on adding more and more services that affect your budget. DR is one of them. It’s an insurance scheme that you may never need, but you will pay for it because you are afraid.
One may never require DR. But to be safer side, they can choose a per instance DR plan, where client has to pay only when disaster has struck. Obviously, charges are higher in those case.
Accounting firms might not go for the high-end business continuity plans. I mean they can survive with some hours of interruption, unlike some banking application or such services that require ideally uninterrupted services. But backup plan at the end of the day should be sufficient.
Do we need to opt for different cloud services to remain on the safer side?
Not always as it can be a costly affair. Moreover, it can be a daunting task because of different policies and procedures of different hosting providers. To remain safe, you can opt for a service provider that has its data centers at different locations.
An important task is educating your staff about DR practices. Companies that are investing into the DR plans must ensure that their employees know what they are supposed to do with the IT policies that come in place during service outrage.
When the business start relying on the cloud, the damages at the branch-end do not interfere much with the continuity. Though the hardware cost cannot be compensated, avoiding the loss due to business outrage is a necessity.
DR services have become critical for almost every industry that relies on digital data and IT.