DISASTER RECOVERY & BUSINESS CONTINUITY
Disaster recovery for SMEs: get the business working again
When critical systems, data or access become unavailable, restoring the technology is only part of the job.
A practical disaster recovery plan should make clear what the business needs first, how long it can wait, who needs to act and whether the recovery process has actually been tested.
Recovery is not about restoring systems. It is about getting the business working again.
Start with what the business needs to do
Different businesses depend on different things.
An accounting firm may need immediate access to client records and billing. A medical practice may depend on appointments and patient information. A small manufacturer may need orders, production data and supplier access.
The technology behind those activities matters. But it should come second.
The first recovery question is: Which activities must resume first for the company to operate?
01
Critical activities
What does the business need to be able to do first?
02
Dependencies
Which people, accounts, data, applications and providers make those activities possible?
03
Time
How long can each activity realistically remain unavailable?
04
Ownership
Who decides, coordinates and acts when recovery starts?
Disaster recovery and business continuity solve different parts of the same problem
The terms are often used together, but they do not mean exactly the same thing.
Business continuity
How does the business keep essential work moving while a disruption lasts?
A business continuity plan defines which activities need to continue, who is responsible and what temporary ways of working may be required.
Disaster recovery
How are the digital capabilities behind those activities restored?
A disaster recovery plan defines how critical systems, data and access are recovered after a serious disruption.
One is not a substitute for the other.
For an SME, they meet at the same practical question:
What needs to be available for people to work again?
Why recovery can fail even when IT is covered
Many SMEs already have an IT provider, cloud services and backups.
That is useful. It does not automatically mean the business is ready to recover.
The wrong thing recovers first
Your IT provider may be able to restore systems without knowing which business activity needs to resume first.
Recovery takes longer than expected
A backup may exist, but nobody has established how long a complete recovery would actually take.
Critical access depends on one person
The systems may be available while the account, credential or approval needed to use them is not.
External dependencies are overlooked
Cloud platforms, software providers, telecom services or specialist partners may be essential to the recovery sequence.
The technology returns before the business does
Systems can be operational again while employees still do not know what to do next or which activity should restart first.
The weak point is often not one technology.
It is the gap between business priorities and the way recovery is expected to happen.
Five questions a practical disaster recovery plan should answer
01
What must recover first?
Not every system has the same importance to the business.
Recovery priorities should follow the activities that matter most, not simply the technical order in which systems happen to be configured.
02
How long can the business wait?
Different activities can tolerate different interruption times.
In formal recovery planning, this is often expressed as a Recovery Time Objective, or RTO.
For a business leader, the useful question is simpler: At what point does the interruption become unacceptable for the business?
03
How much recent information can be lost?
Restoring yesterday’s data may be acceptable for one activity and completely unacceptable for another.
Recovery planning often describes this as the Recovery Point Objective, or RPO.
The business question is: How far back can we realistically go without creating a serious operational problem?
04
Who needs to act?
Recovery may involve employees, the business owner, the IT provider, software vendors and other external partners.
Responsibilities and contact points need to be clear before the interruption occurs.
05
How will we know recovery works?
A recovery plan is based on assumptions until the important parts have been verified.
Access can be checked. Data can be restored. Responsibilities can be walked through. Recovery times can be measured.
The objective is to replace assumptions with evidence.
A plan on paper is not proof of recovery
Recovery plans age.
Employees change. Applications move. Permissions evolve. Providers change. New dependencies appear.
Testing does not have to mean shutting the company down for a day.
An SME can verify critical access, restore selected data, walk through responsibilities, measure actual recovery times and test a realistic scenario without disrupting normal operations.
The objective is not to produce a perfect document. It is to know whether the business can actually recover.
Before building a bigger plan, find out where you stand
Some SMEs need a formal recovery plan.
Others already have parts of one without knowing what is missing.
Before investing in additional tools or producing more documentation, it is often more useful to identify the critical dependencies, challenge the recovery assumptions and determine which gaps could actually prevent the business from restarting.
The AXOUND digital survival assessment provides that starting point. It examines the dependencies that matter when operations are disrupted and turns the findings into clear priorities for the business.
Duration
Around 2 hours
Debrief
Around 30 minutes
Fixed price
A flat fee of CHF 400
Recommendations
Independent and prioritised
Recovery starts with the business
AXOUND works directly with SME leaders or alongside their existing IT provider. The objective is not to replace the technology provider, but to make sure business priorities and recovery capability are connected.
Based in Geneva, AXOUND works with SMEs in Geneva, Vaud and across french-speaking Switzerland.
Prepared to keep operating and ready to recover
Geneva, Switzerland