Skip to main content

Business Continuity for Manufacturers – Why It Matters [eBook]

By October 11, 2018July 16th, 2019Blog

Business Continuity for Manufacturers - SWK NWS

As a manufacturer in today’s fast-paced business environment, you have enough to worry about. You need to keep on top of inventory, so you can run a JIT operation. You need to accurately schedule labor, so you can ensure timely delivery without overtime. You need to handle direct to consumer (D2C) orders…

…And, oh yeah, you also need to protect your systems and networks from attacks and natural disasters.

Learn how you can protect your company with business continuity for manufacturers. Access the eBook to get the details.

Are You Properly Protected?

Hacking, ransomware, cryptojacking, and hurricane damage have all been in the news lately, and they sound like scary occurrences for the manufacturing companies that have fallen victim to these events.

Luckily, we have good news about all these issues. (Warning though, we also have some bad news.)

The good news is that it’s actually pretty easy to protect your networks and systems from the downtime that results from a disaster. The bad news is that most manufacturers don’t currently have the right setup and processes in place to stay protected.

Check to see if your systems are defended by answering these few, quick questions:

  1. Do you have more than one backup solution?
  2. Do you install patches and updates immediately?
  3. Do you have the ability to monitor your systems 24/7 for unusual activity?
  4. Can you quickly and easily identify the status of every device on your network (or that contains company data)?
  5. Would you be able to prepare for an external security audit, if necessary?
  6. Do you enforce a strong password policy?
  7. Do you have a clear business continuity plan in place?

If you answered “yes” to all these questions: Congratulations! It sounds like you have a pretty good handle on security!

If you answered “no” to one or more of these questions, you may want to consider addressing those areas with the help of an outsourced managed services provider (MSP).

If you answered “no” to the questions about backup procedures or business continuity (questions 1 and 7), you’ll want to address those issues immediately.

What Is Business Continuity for Manufacturers?

Unsure about how backups and business continuity are related? Don’t worry, most manufacturers are unclear about the connection between the two.

In a nutshell, backups usually only create duplicates of raw data, such as files. This is helpful in the event of a disaster (it’s certainly far better than having no backups at all), but backups typically take hours, days, or weeks of your time to restore properly. During that time, your business will be unable to move forward.

Business continuity, on the other hand, provides a solid disaster recovery service and contingency plan that uses image-based backups to create a “snapshot in time” of your network and systems. Instead of taking weeks of time for restoration, business continuity minimizes downtime, so you can keep your business on track in the event of a disaster. In many cases, business continuity can fully restore your systems in as little as 5 minutes.

Learn More About Business Continuity for Manufacturers

Curious to find out how your business can use business continuity for manufacturers instead of cumbersome, error-prone manual backups? We’ve got the answer.

 

Learn more about business continuity for manufacturers when you download the eBook, “Manufacturer? Protect Your Company by Adding Business Continuity to the Assembly Line.”