Disaster recovery policies are your business's playbook for bouncing back after unexpected events like cyberattacks, hardware failures, or natural disasters. For small and mid-sized Canadian businesses, it's not enough to set these policies once and forget them. Regular reviews ensure your recovery plans keep pace with changes in your technology, staff, and business priorities.
Why disaster recovery reviews matter for Canadian SMBs
Downtime or data loss can quickly disrupt operations, hurt employee productivity, and damage customer trust. For example, if your backup system isn't capturing recent changes or your recovery process takes too long, your business could face costly interruptions. Additionally, evolving cyber threats and compliance expectations—such as those related to privacy laws—mean your recovery approach must adapt to new risks.
A typical scenario: When policies fall behind
Consider a Canadian company with 50 employees using cloud-based VoIP and unified communications. They set up a disaster recovery plan two years ago but haven't updated it since. Recently, they added new remote workers and switched to a different cloud provider. When a ransomware attack hit, their backups were incomplete and recovery took days longer than expected. An IT partner helped by reviewing their policies, verifying backup integrity, and updating recovery procedures to include remote user data and the new cloud environment.
Checklist: When and how to review your disaster recovery policies
- Schedule regular reviews: Aim for at least once a year, or after significant changes like new software, staff shifts, or infrastructure updates.
- Ask your IT provider: Are backups tested regularly? How quickly can systems be restored? What's the recovery point objective (RPO) and recovery time objective (RTO)?
- Check backup coverage: Confirm that all critical data—including VoIP call records and cloud-hosted files—is included in backups.
- Verify access controls: Ensure that only authorized personnel can initiate recovery procedures or access backup data.
- Review documentation: Make sure recovery steps are clearly written, up to date, and accessible to relevant staff.
- Test your plan: Conduct drills or simulations to identify gaps and improve response times.
- Evaluate service agreements: Confirm that your managed IT provider's Service Level Agreements (SLAs) align with your business's tolerance for downtime and data loss.
Disaster recovery is a critical part of your business resilience strategy. Regularly reviewing your policies helps minimize risks and ensures you can recover efficiently when incidents occur. If you're unsure where to start or want to confirm your current plan's effectiveness, consider consulting a trusted managed IT provider or IT advisor familiar with the needs of Canadian small and mid-sized businesses.