In light of Hurricane Irma, a Category 5 storm that targeted the Caribbean Islands, Puerto Rico, and Florida last week, we have put together a few Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery tips for businesses to think about before the next natural disaster happens:
- Create a phone tree for your organization and stay in touch.
- Have a plan and contingencies.
- What do you need to take from your office?
- How will you support your customers, and from where?
- Send out the storm plan to your employees, customers and partners. Include a communications schedule and stick to it.
- Send an update to employees every few hours with what you know and don’t know.
- Send updates to customers, partners and suppliers with updates that affect them regularly.
- If your business cannot withstand a period of lengthy downtime, secure a facility further inland for you and your employees or ensure everyone is able to work remotely.
- Hurricanes can put data centers out of commission. Make sure your business data, backups, applications, and server images are stored off-site.
- Your IT professionals will be able to restore systems either virtually via the cloud or at the site where you’re resuming operations.
- If time allows, test the backups of crucial servers before the storm hits.
It’s important to be as prepared as possible for the next natural disaster. It’s not a question of if it will happen, but when it will happen, as a disaster can strike at any time to any business.
Questions to Consider:
- How much time can your business afford to be down?
- How much data is your business willing to loose?
You can evaluate your recovery time and recovery point objectives using our Recovery Time Calculator.
To learn more about various types of natural disasters and what they can mean for your business, Download Our EBook, The Natural Disaster Survival Guide for Businesses. Most importantly, be safe!
Feel free to Contact Us for more information.
