Posts Tagged ‘contingency planning’

axon IT Makes Virtual a Reality for Bridge Insurance

Posted by Anna on Wednesday, June 9th, 2010

axon IT  has signed a contract to supply two virtual servers to Manchester’s Bridge Insurance Brokers in a deal which has successfully cut costs for the insurance brokers by significantly reducing their server footprint.

Bridge – one of the NW’s largest independent corporate insurance brokers and risk advisers – will now reduce its eight  physical on-site servers down to two, and take on two virtual servers in axon IT’s Manchester data centre.

The move will assist Bridge in cutting costs, improving flexibility and safeguarding all business information against power failures, fire, theft and other such concerns which can have major operational and financial impacts upon a business.

Scott Fosberry, Chief Information Officer for Bridge Insurance Brokers – located in Central Manchester – commented on the deal; “Going virtual can be a daunting task, but axon have taken all the stress out of the process by deploying a complete virtualization solution which has been fully tailored to our needs. Not only has the process helped to cut costs, but we now have all our vital company data stored securely off-site providing crucial business protection in the event of an emergency.”

Graham Fern, axon IT Director said, “More and more companies are realising the benefits of virtualization. By replacing multiple pieces of costly hardware with virtual servers in our data centre, Bridge will see huge cost savings – not to mention the reduction in running costs associated with running and cooling physical machines.

“In addition, Bridge’s business critical information will now be fully protected in the event of data loss through fire, flood, theft or equipment failure, providing Bridge with the contingency planning they need to keep the business running in the event of an emergency.”

Press Information:-
For more information, photography or an interview with the senior management team please call Anthea Fosti at Zeus Public Relations Limited on 01260 271429 / 07971437042 or email anthea@zeuspr.co.uk.

“It’ll Never Happen to Me” – Disaster Recovery Brought Home

Posted by Anna on Friday, April 9th, 2010

With more and more businesses becoming IT-dependent, the importance of a tried and tested disaster recovery plan couldn’t be greater. Fire, flood, theft and system failures all pose a threat and can lead to a complete catastrophe without proper contingency planning.

So what can you do to protect your business?

Assess the Risk

The first step is to carry out a full assessment of the risks to your business. Perhaps your premises are particularly vulnerable to flooding, your server is out of warranty or your backup is kept on-site? Look at your security – both physical and technological – and assess the threat of hardware theft, data theft, viruses, spyware and hacking. Take into account unforeseen emergencies…… if your offices were closed due to a bomb scare or fire, could you and your staff continue to work from home, accessing emails and company data? Categorise business critical assets and prioritise their protection to ensure a smooth transition to crisis working if the worst happens.

Get Planning

Once you’ve identified your weak spots, put together a full disaster recovery plan to ensure your business recovers quickly in an emergency. If it isn’t already, move your backup to an off-site location so all vital data can be accessed remotely from any location at any time. Look at your phone systems and establish whether your calls can be quickly and easily diverted to an alternative number should you have to temporarily re-locate your offices. Maintain your anti-virus protection and ensure updates are regular and appropriate to your business needs.

Test It

When you have your disaster recovery plan in place, test it – there’s no point having a process in place if it could fail at the critical moment. This also gives you the opportunity to make any necessary tweaks to the programme and finalise the plan accordingly. Brief all relevant employees and make sure they are educated on how to access the systems from home, have access to all log ons and are confident and competent on how to keep the business running.  

According to the Contingency Planning Research and Strategic Research Corporation, 43% of companies experiencing disasters never re‐open, so put your emergency plan to action before it’s too late….

For guidance and assistance on disaster recovery and contingency planning, give axon IT a call today.