There are some disasters that every business is at risk of, like fires or hacking attacks. Therefore, it’s always a good idea to prepare for these common disasters by taking advantage of protective solutions, like firewalls (both physical and digital).
Then, there are other disasters specific to your region, such as floods, blizzards, earthquakes, theft, human error, or lightning strikes.
Why Your Business Continuity Plan Matters
Your business continuity plan must be relevant to the potential disasters that loom over your office—especially when it comes to backing up and recovering your company’s data.
ComputerWorld tells the story of an IT technician who was tasked with preparing their company’s data recovery plan for an unlikely scenario while overlooking a disaster that was far more likely to occur.
Preparing for the Wrong Disaster
“The data center I supported was on the top floor of a multistory building near the airport. I was put on a team tasked with ensuring everything was ready to switch to a disaster recovery hot site located in another state.
The site director was paranoid that the server room would flood. Flood detectors and an automatic paging system were installed. The entire plan was built around detecting this event and then following a carefully scripted action list for shutdown and migration of operations to the disaster recovery site.
Because water was the big concern, there were no water pipes in the server room. Then, he checked the roof for water tanks or other sources of water. While up there, he watched planes landing at the airport—and one flew directly overhead at an altitude of only a few hundred feet. It turned out the building was directly in the landing pattern for one of the runways.
I told the site director that an aircraft crash was more likely than a flood. The site director insisted that a hurricane was a greater threat to flooding the server room. I countered that the building was several hundred miles from the coast, making a hurricane highly unlikely. Still, for the next few months, the team continued planning for a flood.”
Are You Preparing for the Right Disaster?
Can you relate to this story? It’s frustrating to prepare for an unlikely scenario, especially when it means ignoring more probable disaster scenarios like a tornado or an earthquake.
So, how can you be sure that you’re adequately prepared for every possible disaster?
Know Your Regional Risks
This kind of preparedness requires special knowledge of historical disasters in your area. Take the time to carefully evaluate the risks associated with your region.
Additionally, conducting thorough research is crucial. Reviewing past regional and local disasters should be a mandatory task for any new manager responsible for their company’s business continuity plan.
How Technetics Can Help
Technetics can assist your business in assessing its disaster risks. We work with a variety of businesses in unique locations and understand what to look for—especially when it comes to threats to your organization’s data.
One of the best precautions your company can take is implementing our Backup and Disaster Recovery (BDR) solution.
Backup and Disaster Recovery (BDR)
Our BDR solution is designed to withstand any disaster. While a BDR isn’t waterproof, fireproof, or shockproof, it ensures your company’s data remains safe by backing up files off-site.
This way, even if your business experiences a worst-case scenario—like an office-building explosion—you would still be able to access your data and restore operations as soon as you can connect to the Internet.
