If you noticed a few more Ned Stark “_________ IS COMING” memes floating around social media today, it’s for a single reason. HURRICANE SEASON IS COMING!
On May 31st, you and your office were completely normal. June 1st strikes and it’s DEFCON 1 for your entire company. As if you didn’t have enough to worry about on a usual business day, now you have to be ready for a digital “Noah’s Ark” scenario. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecast calls for 11 to 17 named storms, with five to nine hurricanes. Two to four hurricanes are expected to be “major” with sustained winds of at least 111 mph. It’s nearly impossible to predict exactly when or where a natural disaster like a hurricane will hit, but you can prepare a dependable plan for protecting your company’s data.
In 2012, when Hurricane Sandy took northeast coast businesses by surprise, many found themselves at the mercy of their poorly-constructed continuity plans. Far too many of them did not have a reliable backup. Companies that had cloud-based backups remained fully operational, while companies that trusted their onsite backup or local data centers, ended up shutting down while they struggled with data loss and infrastructure damage.
As a business owner you need to know how fast you can realistically be back up and running in the event of a massive storm. You must know which security systems you currently have in place and the levels of strength in order to keep your business running in the event of a disaster. Know each and every single step, and the cost, involved in rebuilding your server and recovering your data.
Your critical data must be backed up every day to a secure backup location. It should be far enough away from your company’s headquarters so it won’t be subject to the devastation of a potential hurricane. If a hurricane strikes in the area where your business is located, it will most likely affect a large geographic region. This is why it is recommended that you back up your data in another location, hundreds and hundreds of miles away, so that it will not be subject to the same hurricane threat. Many businesses back up their data in other states for this very reason.
You must become proactive. Trying to solve the problem after you’ve suffered a crippling loss of data, one that sets your company back in both time and money, is a waste of effort. Investing in a reliable backup software solution is not just prudent, it needs to be mandatory for the survival of your company. Be ahead of the storm!
