Historic Blizzard or an Opportunity to Test Your Business Continuity Plan?

New York, NY (PRWEB) January 27, 2015

Severe weather can cause chaos even in the most prepared cities. Or, it can provide an opportunity to test your Business Continuity Plan. It just depends upon your business perspective. While employees may be happy sitting home drinking hot cocoa, business owners may still be feeling the sting of lost revenue after the holiday season took a bite out of December profits.

Weather forecasters, state, and city officials are warning that more than 2 feet of snow is predicted to fall in the tri-state area. They are calling it a historic storm! Akiva Goldstein, founder and President of Onsite In 60, says NYC businesses should take that as a sign to test or implement business continuity plans. "There are numerous secure and cost effective methods to enable users to connect remotely from home and be able to access company resources."

Over the past several years, Goldstein has seen first-hand the repercussions for many small businesses when NYC has been hit by storms and power outages – some with advance warning, some without. Many companies were forced to close over unpaid insurance claims after the Northeast Blackout of 2003, which affected an estimated 55 million people in the US and Canada. Businesses suffered financial losses estimated to be near $30 Million in 2007 when a NYC steam explosion caused the police department to establish a "frozen zone" over a several block radius and kept thousands of workers from their offices. And, of course, in 2012 Superstorm Sandy caused widespread damage and evacuations to all parts of the tri-state area. According to businessinsurance.com, more than two-thirds of private-sector insurance payments for Sandy-related losses went to businesses.

"Many business owners take a conservative approach and would view this as overreacting," Goldstein says. "Superstorm Sandy is 'once in a lifetime'. But they fail to consider that it doesn't take a superstorm to cause irreparable damage to their business. Small, unforeseen disasters often happen at least once every 2- 3 years, and can have a tremendous impact on a business."

Questions you can ask yourself:
1. There is a major Internet Service Provider in NYC having issues already the past 6 months. If things get worse due to damage in this blizzard, has your Backup Internet Connection been tested recently?
2. If you already have remote access setup, do your employees know how to use it properly?
3. Have you planned enough bandwidth to accommodate the volume of users who must work from home tomorrow and possibly later this week?

Onsite In 60 offers Starter Business Continuity Plans for companies with as few as 10 users, up to full automatic failover Satellite Offices for companies with 250 users. They make use of various hardware and software applications across data centers local to the Tri-State area as well as across the country. They can be reached at 877- IN-SIXTY / 877-467-4989 , http://www.onsitein60.com or info(AT)onsitein60.com.

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2015/01/prweb12473409.htm