Hybrid workforces are becoming a lasting trend, with many companies adopting this model permanently to meet employee preferences. To adapt to this change, businesses need to reassess their strategies, including how they handle business continuity. Traditionally, business continuity plans assume all employees are in one location. However, with the significant rise in the number of workers adopting hybrid arrangements– from 3.6 percent in January 2022 to 11.7 percent in November 2023, this assumption no longer holds. This blog aims to provide a comprehensive guide to managing hybrid workforces, focusing on the benefits of business continuity plans for hybrid workplaces and the best practices to ensure smooth operations during and after unexpected events.

 

Cybersecurity and the Hybrid Workspace

Hybrid workspaces offer flexibility, allowing employees to work from anywhere using a mix of on-site and cloud tools. However, this setup also brings new challenges that can disrupt business operations. In the hybrid workspace, where teamwork relies heavily on technology, companies face significant risks that they must address to maintain operational resilience. One of the biggest threats is cybersecurity. With employees working from various locations like their homes, or coffee shops, using their own devices, there’s a higher risk of cyber-attacks. These threats exploit weaknesses in internet security and insecure connections, putting both employee devices and company data at risk. Ransomware attacks, in particular, have become more common with the rise of remote work, as home setups often lack proper security controls. To succeed in hybrid workspaces, employees need support to protect sensitive data from such risks. Besides cybersecurity, other technical risks like data breaches, network problems, and system downtime are also concerns. For instance, an attack on an office server can affect cloud services, potentially leading to business shutdowns. Similarly, a cloud server outage can disrupt access to office servers, causing major disruptions.

 

Benefits of Business Continuity Planning

Protect what matters

As employees switch between working in the office and remote locations with Wi-Fi, ensuring secure connections and protecting private information becomes a concern. Building a robust IT infrastructure is crucial for resilience. Understanding how data is accessed, managed, and stored helps mitigate risks and lowers the chances of cyber-attacks. Cloud solutions are popular for hybrid work setups, so selecting a provider that stores data across multiple centers is vital. This ensures that if one experiences issues, operations can continue without disruption.

Communicate Confidently

Effective communication is vital to business operations. If your hybrid workspace lacks a centralized remote communication system, it’s time to consider implementing one. Waiting until an emergency occurs is too risky. It’s essential to have a well-established crisis communication plan in place to address misunderstandings in high-stress situations.

Ensure seamless recovery

No matter where your employees are working, your business continuity strategy should focus on restoring operations swiftly. Regularly testing your plan is crucial to ensure your organization is ready for any disaster. Your plan should include various scenarios to optimize your business’s recovery process.

 

How to Transform Your Business Continuity Solution for a Hybrid Workspace

The key to mitigating the above risks and threats is taking a proactive approach to business continuity management. Here are some tips to help your hybrid workforce prepare for unexpected situations:

• Organize a risk assessment: Conducting a comprehensive risk assessment helps pinpoint potential dangers and threats, weighing their chances and consequences. As part of this process, companies should also identify critical assets and prioritize recovery actions based on their impact on the business.
   
• Consider scalability: In a hybrid workforce, you might need to adjust your size rapidly based on the situation. Your business continuity strategy should be adaptable enough to manage these shifts.  
   
• Test your strategy: To make sure your business continuity solution is effective, regularly test it with various scenarios and observe how your employees and systems react. This helps identify any weaknesses so you can make necessary adjustments.
   
• Train Employees: Make sure your employees are familiar with your business continuity plan and understand what to do during emergencies. Ensure everyone knows their roles, where to go, and who to contact. Regular training sessions can help keep everyone informed and prepared.

 

Business Continuity Best Practices for Your Hybrid Workspace

Protect your hybrid workforce from unexpected events with Datto’s business continuity solutions. Datto provides a range of options to suit different business needs: ALTO, ideal for small businesses, SIRIS, a cloud-based backup and recovery solution, and Datto Endpoint Backup with Disaster Recovery, a direct-to-cloud business continuity solution for remote desktops, laptops and notebooks and servers everywhere. Get to know each of them below:

Datto SIRIS

Datto SIRIS Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery stands out from other hardware solutions available. It takes a cloud-first approach, providing businesses with an all-in-one solution that combines local backup and disaster recovery (DR) with a secure cloud-based storage and full DR capabilities in the cloud. This solution can be managed through a multi-tenant cloud portal, allowing businesses to view, manage, and recover data from one interface. Here are some of the key features of this business continuity solution:

• Patented ransomware scanning to detect and prevent ransomware attacks.
• Patented Screenshot verification for recovery assurance, ensuring your data is recoverable.
• Patented Fast Failback™ to the primary system after a disaster for quick restoration.
• Intuitive recovery launchpad for easy and failproof recovery.
• Instant virtualization recovery, either locally or in the cloud, for rapid restoration.
• Inverse Chain Technology™ for reliable backup and data protection.

Datto ALTO

Datto ALTO is a compact, yet robust solution designed to keep small businesses operational, minimizing downtime and protecting against data loss. With its plug-and-play setup, ALTO requires minimal configuration, ensuring quick deployment. Here are some key features of Datto’s ALTO:

• Providing quick recovery in any situation, Datto ALTO is designed to quickly restore operations, ensuring minimal downtime regardless of the scenario.
• The cloud infrastructure operates 24/7, offering features like geo-replication of backups and rapid server restoration and virtualization at no additional cost.
• Stay informed with automated alerts regarding backup failures or ransomware detection.
• Easily restore file systems to a functional state without the need to reimage the entire machine, ensuring efficient recovery.
• Safeguard up to 2TB of data across four agents with automatic backup and protection features.

Datto Endpoint Backup with Disaster Recovery

Datto Endpoint Backup with Disaster Recovery combines direct-to-cloud backup, robust disaster recovery capabilities and a unified management portal. It’s ideal for small businesses and hybrid workplaces, with remote desktops, laptops, notebooks and servers located anywhere. Offered at a flat monthly rate, it provides hourly replication to the secure Datto Cloud, ensuring rapid disaster recovery during downtime, cyberattacks, and outages. The Datto Cloud is purpose-built for disaster recovery and backup, setting the standard for secure cloud infrastructure. It includes features like Cloud Deletion Defense, which safeguards against ransomware by allowing access to deleted cloud snapchats caused by accidental or malicious deletion. Here are some feature highlights of Datto’s Endpoint Backup with Disaster Recovery software solution:

• Built on Datto’s proven SIRIS technology, offering consistent management and protection for endpoints, servers and the cloud.
• Demonstrates exceptional resilience with backup and disaster recovery in the secure, reliable, geo-replicated Datto Cloud, ensuring improved RTO and eliminating downtime risk.
• Features a secure architecture that safeguards each client with a single-tenant model and encrypted disks.

 

Protect Your Hybrid Workplace From the Unexpected With JBM!

Hybrid workspaces bring new challenges that demand adjustments to current continuity strategies. Having multiple work locations raises cybersecurity concerns, as it opens up more avenues for potential data breaches. By implementing business continuity best practices and planning ahead, you can equip your hybrid workforce to sustain business operations during emergencies. To learn more about Datto’s business continuity solutions and how they can safeguard your hybrid workforce from the unexpected, contact us today.