Though often overlooked by small business, implementing a DR plan is absolutely critical. Should a natural or man-made disaster occur. The recent riots are a good example of what can happen to a business. Although the impact is high if you lose premises the loss of data can cause a business to close its doors for good. For a small business this data could be held on paper records. Imagine if you are a small shop and you keep all your customer records and supplier contacts in a diary and your shop burns down, while you may be able to find temporary premises; would you be able to re-build your contact lists?

According to research carried out by Gartner, two out of five businesses that experience a disaster go out of business within five years.

One thought to leave you with hard drives always fail eventually! Make sure you back up your data business and private (think of those family photos), use an on-line backup service the costs are so small now that it’s a no brainer!