A breakdown of your IT set-up will have far-stretching repercussions. Valuable company data is lost, project deadlines will be jeopardized and hundreds of man hours may be lost. The cost to the business can be many thousands of £s (pounds). Then to cap it all at the same time your Head of IT is struck by the swine flu virus then who will then come to your rescue?

"Fortunately there are a number of elementary and affordable solutions - for a SME - to guarantee the continuity of the IT environment whatever the circumstances", says George Dunseath of SkyTeledata.

IT departments in big multinationals and governmental institutions have taken their precautions during the past few months in case of a pandemic spread of the swine flu. By investing substantial amounts they try to safeguard the continuity of their activities, even if many of their employees might be off sick. George Dunseath believes that "Small and Medium sized Enterprises have actually not paid a lot of attention to this risk, even though their activities represent a substantial part of the UK economy. The spreading of the swine flue epidemic is an excellent opportunity for an SME to reflect upon the fail-safe continuity of their IT."

The human factor

The availability of its staff will make or break any business. Most SME however do not have a separate IT department. Often a manager in the company combines an IT role with other responsibilities. Sometimes it is even the owner himself who accounts for the management of IT. "If you can spare the time there's nothing wrong with this at all", says George Dunseath. "But I do advise to designate both an internal and external back-up person. In this way you avoid becoming too depending on one single person. Within the UK there lots of IT-support providers including SkyTeledata (0207 096 6366), so contact a couple of them. Keep their phone number close by in case of an emergency. This won't cost you anything today but they will guide you safely through difficult times."

Think beyond the daily data back-up routines

In most SME a daily back-up is taken - usually at the end of the working day - of all data on the server. George Dunseath confirms: "Indeed, that is a good starting point. But what if the server crashes somewhere around noon, you will lose right away the work done in half a day. The back-up will only restore your data. Firstly your IT team will need to re-install the server as well as all other applications. Meanwhile just about all workers stand by in idleness. And what if your Head of IT is at that precise moment not in the office? Also, can your support partner make themselves available immediately to assist you? "

Get back to business in less than 20 minutes

A sound business continuity system will do more than simply taking back-ups of in-house data. SkyTeledata offers for example a system in which an extra server is brought in. The extra server takes a complete back-up of the server(s) in your company every 15 minutes, data and application software included. This back-up server can therefore immediately take over in case your own machine breaks down. Your entire IT environment is fully operational within 20 minutes and everybody can get back to work.

What's more, this temporary server can easily last you through the next month. "This will give the company comfortable time to select, buy, install, and test a new server", George Dunseath explains. "Actually our BizCon 5051 unit also daily backs ups your local server. This back-up is sent over the internet to a secure data centre. And all our servers are supervised by our central Networking Operating Centre. Irregularities in communication between both servers are immediately spotted which helps us in diagnosing malfunctions before they actually occur."

The price tag of this service?

This type of service need not be too expensive. SkyTeledata already offers its services for a price comparable to an insurance premium. For that amount you can rest assured that your entire IT-system is up-and-running in no time at all and that swine doesn’t impact your business.

Business continuity in a nutshell

3 ways to survive your next server crash

• Make sure that both internally and externally competent persons are available to take over from your absent IT manager.
• A daily data back-up is not sufficient. In case a server crashes the bulk of time is wasted whilst re-installing servers and applications.
• Select therefore a business continuity system that is able to immediately take over all tasks from the server, limiting your downtime to the absolute minimum.