With the rise of remote working and the pandemic-induced shift to work from home, some have questioned the relevance of WAR.
Martin Lewis, Operational Sales Manager at Daisy explains why all businesses should have a robust WAR strategy in their arsenal.
While remote working has proven to be a viable alternative for many businesses there can still be a risk in the event of a disaster. If the disaster affects the company’s IT infrastructure it may not be feasible to quickly set up the required systems and processes needed to work from home, with employees not being able to access the necessary equipment, software or infrastructure needed to carry out their duties.
A recent incident experienced by one of our largest WAR customers highlights the continued importance of WAR as a critical component of any organisation’s disaster recovery strategy.
In the aftermath of a critical cyber attack, a multinational finance and insurance company was left unable to carry out their core operations. This had a major impact on their office-based and homeworking colleagues, and in turn, their customers.
The security breach happened through their third-party telephony service provider, which caused all their telephony systems to stop working. As a result, they had to shut down their entire IT infrastructure to handle and restrict the damage. This meant even employees working remotely via VPN or with softphones were taken offline.
They needed to get back online and quickly. They also recognised the need to prevent any similar interruptions of service in the future. This meant ensuring they had a backup solution ready so they could quickly get back on their feet if faced with other unforeseen scenarios in the future.
Only a matter of weeks before the incident, the customer had decided not to renew their contract for WAR services when it next came up for renewal, as they believed that working from home provided a viable alternative solution. This was a common trend among many businesses as they transitioned towards remote working as the new norm. The reality was, that this would have left them vulnerable, and when the breach happened, they luckily still had their work area recovery contract with us, to enable them to get back online while the situation was addressed. The breach served as a stark reminder that cyber threats can happen to anyone, regardless of their location and that working from home is not an alternative to work area recovery.
As a result of the incident and the support provided by Daisy, the customer experienced first-hand the value and importance of having a robust WAR contract in place. Realising that home workers and office workers may both require an alternative place to work from when the unexpected happens, the customer has reversed their decision and extended their contract with Daisy for WAR provision. This decision not only ensures the safety and security of their business operations but also demonstrates their commitment to providing uninterrupted services to their customers.
How can Daisy help you?
We’ve been delivering industry-leading dedicated and syndicated WAR services in the UK for more than 30 years. We can provide all the IT, office, and environmental facilities that your workforce needs if they are displaced from their usual working environment, be that an office or their home.
We can support your business by offering hot or cold standby positions, across our network of business recovery centres across the UK. Working from home cannot and will not protect you from cyber incidents.
Daisy can also provide additional support when responding to any breach. Our Cyber Business Recovery Service (CBR) provides a small mobile lab environment to allow secure restores and forensic analysis to be carried out in isolation before moving the sanitised workloads back into production. Further support can be provided by our Cyber Security specialists to help your staff during what can be a tense time.
About Martin Lewis
Operational Sales Manager, Daisy
Martin puts to good use his 26 years of experience from across the full spectrum of the IT industry, having held positions at leading vendors, distributers, resellers and service providers. Now leading the Operational Resilience Sales Specialists team at Daisy, he and his team strive to ensure our solutions meet or exceed customer demands around governance, compliance, and risk management.
Working with an award-winning team of business continuity management and IT service continuity consultants, Martin and his team cement Daisy’s presence as a leading provider of Operational Resilience solutions in the UK.