For businesses with important data and IT equipment, hurricanes and storms can be detrimental for a company. This is why it is essential to have a robust data and backup recovery solution. MSPs must emphasize the urgency of preparing for such disasters to avoid large losses of data or downtime.
Hurricanes and other natural disasters have the ability to damage infrastructure, which can lead to loss of data, downtime, and loss of business activity. Without an MSP, data recovery can take weeks after it is compromised.
This blog will discuss how hurricanes and other natural disasters can affect companies and the importance of having power and data backups.
Why is protecting your data important?.
You have to make sure that you have a retrievable and complete backup of your servers and files. Backups allow you to restore applications and data when your servers get destroyed. It can also help you to retrieve data from different time points.
Make a disaster recovery plan
Form a whole catalog of hardware, applications, and client systems that gives you the ability to have a fast reaction time in disaster scenarios. Ensure that your plan pinpoints the exact employees in the company that will be responsible for protecting the company’s data and equipment. Those people should know what their roles and responsibilities are and who to report to in the event of a natural disaster.
Safeguard from Power Issues
The power surges and power outages that come along with hurricanes also become an issue for IT equipment. You should try to have your computers and servers connected to an uninterrupted power supply so they can stay running for a brief time after the primary source of power is gone.
To prepare your company for a hurricane, reach out to an IT provider like MSG to inquire about how to properly shut down your servers so they can do so professionally and shut them down in the proper sequence. When a natural disaster is approaching, some IT providers suggests recommendations such as disconnecting your routers, network switches, surge protectors, firewalls, and battery packs. If you do decide to disconnect, there can be potential downtime after the storm before getting back online.
Consider off-site backup and storage
This is really important, especially for companies that are located in coastal areas. The cloud has made off-site backup easier than before. Applications and data should have a backup in a place that is not likely to be disturbed if a storm occurs. You should also have a plan to make sure that a switch can happen easily and quickly if your data center is compromised in the event of a storm.
Locate data centers in safe areas
To defend your data, you have to select the site for your data centers carefully. This location should consider the potential for flooding, accessibility of fiber and power connectivity, and the overall environment in general. You can take assets of transportation such as freeways into account as well. Data centers that are in hurricane-prone and flood-prone locations should have an extra power backup and equipment.
Test and Assess
Data and backup recovery systems need to be tested many times within the year to make sure that your data can be rapidly retrieved and restored if your data center crashes. While having a disaster recovery plan is important, your company must also be able to test the plan to make sure that it is performing as you expect it to. The standard in the industry is to trial and assess your recovery plan at least twice a year or when there is a noteworthy change to the surroundings or environment to make sure your IT is prepared for a declared disaster.
Why you need an MSP during hurricane season
Outsourcing your IT infrastructure management or disaster recovery to a qualified managed service provider like MSG can help your company maintain regular business operations and reduce downtimes after a hurricane or natural disaster occurs. An MSP can assist you in monitoring your applications and network systems to provide consistent support if you experience downtime. MSPs can make sure that your recovery plan is proficient by ensuring your data is protected by providing secondary security that is separate and away from a potential disaster site.
Your company shouldn’t go out of business because of a hurricane or major storm. Managed Services Group is devoted to preparing our clients to safeguard their company. We do this by ensuring they have the right IT to cater to their long-term and short-term needs through informing them about protecting their business from weather-related, cyber, and other disasters. Contact us to discuss how we can assist your business today.
