Being born and raised in the south (like me), at some point in your life you’ve most likely attended a church where at the end of the service (when you’re starving to death), there’s that one little thing that has to take place before you’re dismissed. It goes something like this:
A minister, pastor or leader of the church calls out to the attendees and says, ”If you are not 100 percent certain that you’d be taken up to heaven when Jesus comes, then please step forward and we will pray with you and ask the Lord for forgiveness of your sins so you will have a place in heaven too. It’s commonly referred to as “The Altar Call”.
At that point, you’d see people who the sermon had an impact on or had “seen the light” or had some sort of supernatural experience where they felt the need or a pull that compelled them to walk to that alter to ensure they were going to heaven too.
Folks, I’m here for another type of conviction. It’s The Disaster Recovery Altar Call.
Typically when we do a demo at a conference, it almost looks like the same scenario as described above where we ask, “If you are not 100 percent sure that if a hurricane, flood, fire, tornado, ransomware or even Nancy in HR who notoriously loses and deletes files, wouldn’t put you out of business or cost you an arm and a leg in production or regulatory fines, (DR Hell) then you might check to see if the backup and disaster recovery system you have in place is not only one that can get your data back, but get it back super-fast! Because data’s no good if you cannot access it for hours, days, weeks or months. People are typically compelled to act!
Do you have a plan to get it all back? Where’s the documentation on how you’re gonna do that? What happens when business grinds to a halt? Will you be configuring new servers for two weeks while your employees have nothing to do?
We are talking business continuity, my friends. Being able to continue doing business without missing a beat. CEO’s and executives leave our seminars and often go back to the office and ask their IT Person if they are “okay” for Disaster Recovery. Now if I were the IT person, I doubt I’d tell my boss,” We are not okay”. Right? Perhaps you might say, “we’re okay” as you’re thinking “for the money you gave me to back us up”.
Folks, this is an altar call. Be 100 percent certain that not only are you backed up but that you can get your data back really fast and that the restoration of data is a mild hiccup in your day instead of an all out disaster that could ruin your business.
Technology Professionals: Have the conversation with the executive. Tell them what you really need. They’ll appreciate you for it.
Business Leaders: This responsibility ultimately falls on you. Data protection should be at the top of your list.
So whether you’re an IT professional or a C-Level executive, ThinkGard can help you get a great conversation started. If you need a little coaching to know what questions to ask your technology department call us. If you need help understanding how to approach leadership effectively, we’ll help you too. Or at least read our blog about C-level IT Disconnect. Perhaps you’ll see the light.
ThinkGard is Datto’s Top U.S Partner of the year 2018