Disaster Recovery for NYC Small Businesses: Because Hope Is Not a Strategy

New York City businesses face unique disaster risks:

• Power outages: Con Ed grid issues, building electrical failures

• Flooding: Basement server rooms meet climate change

• Cyber attacks: Ransomware doesn’t care about your size

• Building emergencies: Fire, construction, water main breaks

• Internet outages: Single ISP dependency

The brutal math: The average SMB loses $8,000-$25,000 per hour of downtime. A full-day outage can cost $100,000+ when you factor in lost productivity, missed deadlines, and customer churn.

Mistake #1: “We Back Up to an External Drive”

That drive sitting next to your server? It’s going down with the ship. Fire, flood, theft, ransomware—one event takes out both.

Mistake #2: “Our IT Guy Handles It”

Have you tested a recovery? Can you restore to a specific point in time? Where’s the documentation? If your IT person is on vacation when disaster strikes, then what?

Mistake #3: “We’re in the Cloud, So We’re Safe”

Cloud providers protect their infrastructure, not your data. Microsoft 365 doesn’t back up your email by default. AWS doesn’t restore deleted files. You’re responsible for your data.

Mistake #4: “We’ve Never Had a Problem”

The question isn’t if you’ll have a disaster—it’s when. And you won’t know your DR plan is broken until you desperately need it to work.

3 copies of your data
2 different storage types
1 offsite (preferably far away)

Example for a 10-person office:

• Live data on server/cloud (copy 1)

• Local backup to NAS (copy 2, different type)

• Cloud backup to AWS/Azure/Backblaze (copy 3, offsite)

This protects against: hardware failure, ransomware, building disasters, theft.

Before designing your DR plan, answer two questions:

RTO: How long can you be down?

• 4 hours: You need hot standby systems

• 24 hours: Standard cloud backup works

• 48+ hours: You might survive without formal DR

RPO: How much data can you lose?

• 0 minutes: You need real-time replication

• 1 hour: Frequent automated backups

• 24 hours: Daily backups are fine

Reality check: Most businesses claim they need 4-hour RTO but only budget for 24-hour solutions. Be honest about what you’ll actually pay for.

Tier 1: Essential (Every Business)

Cost: $200-500/month

• Endpoint backup: Backblaze, Carbonite, or CrashPlan

• M365/Google Workspace backup: Backupify, Spanning, or Acronis

• Password manager: So you can log into everything from anywhere

• Documentation: Written recovery procedures (not in your head)

Tier 2: Professional (20+ employees or critical data)

Cost: $500-2,000/month

Everything in Tier 1, plus:

• Server/VM backup: Veeam, Acronis, or Datto

• Cloud infrastructure backup: Native tools + third-party validation

• Tested recovery: Quarterly DR tests

• Runbook: Step-by-step recovery documentation

Tier 3: Enterprise (Regulated industries, can’t afford downtime)

Cost: $2,000-10,000/month

Everything in Tier 2, plus:

• Business continuity site: Hot or warm standby

• Automated failover: Systems switch over without human intervention

• 24/7 monitoring: Someone’s watching even at 3 AM

• Annual DR exercises: Full-scale simulated disasters

1. Email and Collaboration

• Microsoft 365 / Google Workspace

• Slack / Teams history

• Shared drives and documents

2. Line-of-Business Applications

• Your industry software (EHR, CRM, ERP, etc.)

• Associated databases

• Configuration and customizations

3. Financial Data

• QuickBooks / accounting software

• Payroll records

• Tax documents

• Banking credentials

4. Customer Data

• CRM records

• Contracts and agreements

• Project files

• Communication history

5. Credentials and Access

• Password vault export

• MFA recovery codes

• Admin credentials for critical systems

• Vendor contact information

When Disaster Strikes:

First 15 Minutes:

• Assess scope: What’s affected?

• Notify stakeholders: IT team, leadership, affected staff

• Document: Start a timeline log

First Hour:

• Determine root cause (if possible)

• Activate backup systems if available

• Communicate with customers if needed

• Engage vendors/support

First 4 Hours:

• Begin recovery from backups

• Prioritize critical systems

• Set up temporary workarounds

• Update stakeholders regularly

First 24 Hours:

• Complete primary system recovery

• Verify data integrity

• Document lessons learned

• Plan for preventing recurrence

Monthly:

• Verify backups are completing

• Spot-check restore a random file

• Review backup logs for errors

Quarterly:

• Full restore test (different machine/location)

• Recovery time measurement

• Update documentation

Annually:

• Tabletop DR exercise with leadership

• Full DR drill (if budget allows)

• Plan review and update

| Scenario | Without DR | With DR |
|———-|———–|———|
| Ransomware attack | Pay ransom ($50K+) or lose everything | Restore from backup (hours) |
| Server failure | Buy new hardware, rebuild from scratch (days) | Failover or restore (hours) |
| Office flood | Complete loss of local systems | Restore to cloud/new location |
| Employee deletes critical files | Gone forever | Restore from backup (minutes) |

Today (15 minutes):

• Verify your backups ran last night

• Can you name where backups are stored?

This Week (2 hours):

• Test restoring one file from backup

• Document your critical systems list

This Month (half day):

• Full restore test to different hardware

• Write your 1-page recovery runbook

• Review and update vendor contact list

Kyber Systems provides disaster recovery planning and implementation for NYC businesses. We design, deploy, and test DR solutions that actually work when you need them.

Free DR assessment: (646) 462-4132 | kybersystems.com