The Role of Portable Tech Hubs in Modern Business Continuity Planning

The Role of Portable Tech Hubs in Modern Business Continuity Planning

Don’t let your business become another statistic. Prepare for the unpredictable with a portable tech hub.

It seems like every week there’s a new disaster making the news. Floods. Wildfires. Hackers. Power outages. Cybersecurity breaches…

Disasters don’t care how big your business is. Or how many “fail safes” you’ve put in place.

Business continuity management statistics reveal a startling fact:

40%+ of businesses affected by a disaster never reopen their doors.

Portable tech hubs are here to change that

Table of Contents

  • Why Portable Tech Hubs Matter for Business Continuity
  • The Real Cost of Operational Downtime
  • Key Features That Make Mobile Solutions Work
  • How to Choose the Right Portable Tech Hub
  • Implementation Tips for Maximum Protection
  • Wrapping Things Up

Why Portable Tech Hubs Matter for Business Continuity

Most business continuity plans assume you’ll relocate operations to a backup site.

The issue with that

What if your backup location experiences issues as well? If something disastrous happens regionally, chances are that backup location three miles away suffered similar damage as your main office.

Portable tech hubs put the command center at your fingertips. Understanding the mobile command center cost ahead of time can help you prepare your budget before an emergency occurs.

Portable tech hubs allow you to..

Take everything you need to activate and run your command center with you. Literally.

They’re like having a secondary command center ready to go at a moment’s notice.

Whether you need to deploy on-site or operate remotely, portable tech hubs have you covered.

The Real Cost of Operational Downtime

I know what you’re thinking…

“All of that sounds great, but do portable tech hubs really pay for themselves?”

Oh yeah. They do.

According to the ITIC 2024 Hourly Cost of Downtime Report, ITIC surveyed more than 200 companies and discovered:

90% of mid-size to large enterprises believe their hourly cost of downtime exceeds $300,000.

Let that sink in.

Per hour.

And remember, this doesn’t account for any legal costs or regulatory fines. If you’re in healthcare, finance, or manufacturing.. those numbers are even higher.

Downtime costs:

  • Lost Revenue
  • Stopped productivity
  • Dissatisfied customers
  • Repair and recovery costs

A portable tech hub can drastically reduce your recovery time. There’s no waiting for your IT department to repair damaged infrastructure or your operations team to activate a separate site.

Teams can have a fully functional operations center up and running in hours (sometimes minutes) of an incident happening.

$300,000 per hour is nothing to scoff at. If a portable tech hub saves you a few hours, it’s already paid for itself.

Key Features That Make Mobile Solutions Work

Mobile tech hubs aren’t all created equal.

Some simply roll off the assembly line with bare minimum features. Modern portable command centers should include these four elements at minimum.

Communication Goes First

Say your internet goes down. Or worse.. the cell towers aren’t working.

Your team still needs a way to communicate with one another.

Top notch portable command centers will include:

  • Satellite Uplinks
  • Cellular Boosters
  • Radio Communicators

…anything that doesn’t rely solely on local internet or cellular towers.

Keep It Powered

There’s no use in having a tech powerhouse if it won’t turn on.

Portable tech hubs should include some sort of internal power generation. Whether that’s an actual generator, battery backups, or solar power.

Don’t be afraid to ask how long the unit can last without external power.

Access to Data

We live in a data driven world.

You’ll need access to your business critical data while operating from your portable tech hub. That means encrypted connections to:

  • Backup servers
  • Cloud storage
  • Filestreaming services

Cloud technology has made this easier than ever. As long as your team can connect to the internet, they can grab the files they need from virtually anywhere.

Don’t Forget Workspace

Some situations will only require two people on site. Others will require deployments of 20+

When evaluating portable tech hubs, consider how many people your organization will need support for during a deployment.

Modular designs can be easy to downsize if you don’t need a full fleet of laptops and tablets.

How to Choose the Right Portable Tech Hub

Every organization’s needs will be slightly different.

Here are a few things to consider when looking for your perfect mobile match.

Evaluate your risk

What are you more likely to encounter? If you live near the ocean, you’ll probably want a portable tech hub that can stand up to hurricanes.

Deployment time matters

How long will it take to setup your portable tech hub and get operations running? If you’re looking for a quick deploy solution, you may need to compromise on some specs.

Integration

Just because you can pack it up and roll it away doesn’t mean your portable tech hub can function without your existing systems.

Make sure it will play nice with your:

  • Communication software
  • Security protocols
  • Data management tools

Budget for the total cost of ownership

Going back to our previous point, there’s more to owning a portable tech hub than the initial cost.

You’ll need to maintain it. Train staff on how to use it. Replace technology as it becomes outdated.

Keep those costs in mind when comparing pricing

Implementation Tips for Maximum Protection

Purchasing a portable tech hub is only half the battle. Knowing how to properly implement it into your business continuity plan is where most businesses fail.

Create deployment procedures

This “mobile office” shouldn’t be a mystery to your team. Create concise, step-by-step guidelines for deploying your portable tech hub.

Remember.. time is of the essence when your business is suffering from operational downtime.

Train your team

You don’t want to unpack your portable tech hub for the first time during a disaster.

Schedule practice sessions. Get your team familiar with how everything operates.

Update your technology

Just like with your main office, technology is constantly evolving.

What’s considered cutting edge today might be useless next year. Make sure you leave room in the budget for tech upgrades.

Document, document, document

If there’s one thing we’ve all learned from the last couple of years it’s this:

Document EVERYTHING.

Processes, emergency contacts, access credentials.. you name it.

You should have both digital and hard copies of every document your team may need during a deployment saved on the portable tech hub itself.

Test those integration points

We touched on this briefly earlier, but it’s worth mentioning again.

Make sure your portable tech hub integrates seamlessly with your primary systems. Test these integration points regularly to catch any compatibility issues before they cause problems.

Wrapping Things Up

Portable tech hubs are no longer just a luxury item for the big players in industry…

They’re a necessity for businesses of all sizes to protect their bottom line.

With hourly downtime costs reaching six figures, anything you can do to reduce that downtime is money back in your pocket.

Your business continuity plan shouldn’t just consist of:

  • Risk Assessment
  • Backup Sites
  • Recoverability plans

Portable tech hubs allow you to take those plans and go wherever you need to in order to weather the storm.

Don’t wait for a disaster to hit to find out your business continuity plan is missing something.

Research portable tech hubs today. While you still have time.

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