Needed - Another Y2K Threat

Disaster Preparedness

Needed - Another Y2K Threat

Ten years ago, the world was getting over the Y2K panic that forced organizations to update their operations. Y2K was mostly a non-event, but it did get organizations to upgrade their systems and the telephony industry was a major beneficiary. 

Did the upgrades prevent upcoming disasters? Generally not. Organizations were so focused on Y2K that most did not to plan for the usual business interruptions. To be fair, implementing a full DR plan in 2000 could also be quite expensive. A newly installed Y2K-compliant PBX (News - Alert) would require a back-up unit at the failover site. Businesses perceived the Internet as a new innovation and untested for DR use. Broadband service to homes was expensive or not available. These and other limitations restricted the growth of products and services like VoIP, SaaS (News - Alert) and other solutions that are standard DR components today.   

2011 DR Checklist:

FoIP
VoIP PBX
Smartphones
SaaS 
Microsoft (News - Alert) OCS
Hosted VoIP
Hosted Fax
Hosted CRM
Hosted Support Center
Hosted Exchange
Home Offices
Mobile Offices
Unified Communications
Virtual Computing
Cloud Hosting
Cloud Hybrid Fax
Cloud Computing
High-Speed IP Access (News - Alert)

Many checklist items were not even available in the year 2000. Others, like smartphones, were in their infancy with limited reliability and feature sets. Today, however, all of the checklist items are proven solutions and readily available. 

So what’s your organization’s excuse for not having a DR plan in place? It cannot be cost since implementing most of the checklist items reduces overhead and increases operational efficiency. People like working from home and using smartphones, so employee resistance is not a factor. Maybe your organization just needs a kick start. Imagine it’s Y2K again, or make starting a DR plan one of your early New Year’s resolutions.

Begin by selecting one or two checklist items that could be covered by your current budget or leftover 2010 funds. For example, upgrading key employees to laptops or smartphones for mobile access or implementing hosted VoIP or SaaS are all great selections. Get started today for a happy and safe 2011.

Max Schroeder is the senior vice president of FaxCore Inc and managing director of the DPCF.

Rich Tehrani is the president and group editor-in-chief at TMC, and conference chairman of ITEXPO (News - Alert).


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Edited by Stefania Viscusi