Cloud Contingencies: Lessons For Small And Medium-Sized Businesses

This guide outlines the lessons learned from the July outage involving CrowdStrike and its impact on various businesses, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMBs). It emphasizes the importance of contingency planning and due diligence when selecting cloud providers. The document discusses the necessity of understanding cloud dependencies, building redundancies, and knowing update policies to mitigate risks associated with downtime. It also highlights the significance of investing in business continuity planning, detailing how a well-structured plan can provide substantial returns on investment, especially for businesses with seasonal cycles. The guide suggests that companies should not only have documented plans but also conduct drills and stress tests to ensure operational readiness. Furthermore, it addresses the common tendency of businesses to procrastinate on preparing for outages and stresses the critical nature of IT and digital operations in modern business environments. By evaluating risks and potential impacts, organizations can better safeguard their operational health.