Today it seems like the news almost exclusively related to the tornadoes that hit the Nashville area or about corona virus, and it seems fitting to share a little about the aftermath of our storm in middle Tennessee. I promise, this WILL end with a point related to Acumatica. Just indulge me for a moment so that I can help give some perspective.
This week has been tough for Middle Tennessee as a series of tornadoes ripped a path of destruction through several counties in the early morning hours on Tuesday, March 3rd. For some, this disaster seems like a repeat of a storm in 1998 in which a tornado followed an eerily similar path. The loss of life was far more than we normally see from typical tornadoes in Tennessee, but the outpouring of support that has flooded the area is truly inspirational.
While I live in the Nashville area, my local community was far enough to the south to be spared from the path of destruction. That doesn’t mean that we escaped unscathed. Many of us in the area have ties to churches, businesses, and extended family that were in the path of the storm. For instance, the best skate shop in the area is Asphalt Beach near the stadium in downtown Nashville. My son and I were there just a couple of weeks ago getting some gear and having some new skates adjusted. This week, my son found a couple of photos of the shop on their Instagram, and all I can say is that I hope the owner, Steve, will rebuild. Whether or not Steve rebuilds, people in Middle Tennessee are resilient. While we may carry scars, we will rebuild.
Asphalt Beach – Downtown Nashville
So, what does this have to do with Acumatica? Well, consider for a moment… what if it had been YOUR business or YOUR data center that was destroyed in this disaster. Would your business survive? Would you be able to service your customers, or would they be forced to leave you? Clearly if your inventory has been destroyed, there will be disruptions, but could you recover? If your data center is destroyed, can you still ship if your warehouse is okay? Can you even bill your customers or accept payments or pay vendors to keep cash flowing?
Acumatica is a modern ERP software that is designed to run in the cloud. What does that mean for you? Your data center can be virtual. Your office staff can work from home or move into temporary offices. Your business can have a fighting chance at recovery even before the building is restored.
Wait, we don’t run in the cloud! What about us? There is good news for you as well, if you have a good disaster recovery (DR) plan. I’ve seen Symix ERP installed on an HP PA/RISC server, Oracle installed on an IBM RS/6000 server, and SAP installed on Windows virtual servers on VMWare. While we once spent $100k to UPGRADE some of the hardware in the HP server and invested tens of thousands on RS/6000 servers, we can run Acumatica on a Microsoft Windows server and use Microsoft SQL running on windows servers. I must confess, with 2 sons at home who love to play games, I even have hardware at home that is capable of running Acumatica for a small company. The point is, if your DR plan protects your data, you can rebuild your servers or purchase dedicated hosting or migrate to cloud services to get your ERP software back up and running to give your business a fighting chance at survival.
At the moment disaster hits, the window of opportunity to plan an effective DR strategy is closed. Advancements in technology continue to mean a DR plan from a few years ago can be made better, and sometimes even cheaper.
If disaster strikes your business, can your business survive? Start the conversation today to make sure your business is protected.