The COVID-19 virus is all over the news lately, and while the experts’ consensus seems to be that it is not necessary to take drastic action at this time, we should be prepared in case things get worse. With that being said, it does seem a good time to discuss DR planning.
MICRO DOCTOR IT has considered our Disaster Recovery plan scenarios with respect to the virus. Hosted systems, network links, and other hardware will not be affected directly by the COVID-19 virus, so all systems will continue to work as designed. MICRO DOCTOR IT staff have the ability to remotely manage, monitor and maintain these systems.
The MICRO DOCTOR IT Rapid Response Team has the ability to function in a distributed environment, with staff working from home, in the office, or other internet-connected locations (for phones, ticketing, and troubleshooting).
While the MICRO DOCTOR IT team may be affected by the virus, we do not expect service levels to be impacted. In addition, MICRO DOCTOR IT has redundancy in key technical positions, so if individual staff members require recovery time, the necessary skills will still be available.
As part of your plans, the ability to work remotely via cloud systems or VPN could be key during any quarantines. All Micro Doctor clients on one of our MD-Care monthly service packages have an agent on each user PC that would allow us to set up encrypted, secure remote access for the user of that PC. There is some setup time required to enable this new functionality and a learning curve for the user to be able to access it, but it works very well, and is, in fact, the same technology we use to remotely fix your systems.
Also, any of our clients who have the Allworx phone systems that we sell and service, have the ability to add remote phones to user’s homes that will function exactly as if the user is sitting at their desk in the office. The same extension, voice mail, and all other telephone functionality would work from home with a remote phone.
If you have any concerns about your staff’s ability to work remotely, would like us to quote setting up a number of your employees to work on their PC remotely, or would like a quote on remote phones for your Allworx phone system, please reach out to MICRO DOCTOR IT to begin discussions on next steps.
Here is the link to our online service request form if you would like to have a remote access set-up for any or all employees. https://www.microdoctor.com/support-center/
Please allow sufficient time for us to respond as this is going to be a popular request.
If there are other questions or specific concerns, let us know!
The MICRO DOCTOR IT Team