New Year's resolutions are a time-honored tradition, and while you may have decided to lose weight or quit smoking, you should consider creating a resolution for your business as well. Namely, strengthening your continuity of operations plan.

MSPMentor recently reported that now is the perfect time to buckle down on business continuity. From data backup to hot site designation, the beginning of the new year marks a time of change and integrating these new strategies into your business continuity planning can help ensure that when a crisis hits, you're prepared. Here are a few suggestions for your New Year's disaster recovery resolution:

Embrace mobility – Mobility is a key trend not only for workflow improvement and productivity, but also disaster recovery. Giving employees flexible access to data and work applications on their own mobile devices allows them to get back up to speed quickly when there's a crisis and avoid major downtime expenses.

Improve data backups – Data and storage infrastructure is rapidly evolving, making 2015 a prime time to invest in new data backup recovery solutions as well. Whether you've migrated to the cloud or not, it will be important to implement enhanced security measures, as cyber threats continue to grow.

Restructure employee training – Another important step you can make in enhancing business continuity this year is to update your employee training in preparation for a disaster. Many firms don't think to update their training programs when they make minor changes to continuity plans, but over time this can constitute workers being completely unaware of the proper steps and strategies for recovery and hot site operations.

If you need assistance in optimizing your continuity of operation planning in the new year, consider bringing in consultants to help you make a more secure transition into 2015.