Hurricane Season is Here -- Are Your Computers Ready For a Disaster?
Every year when hurricane season arrives, the
discussion turns (at least for a short while) to the topic of disaster
recovery. What would happen to your business (or home) records if your
computer systems were destroyed in a disaster? Here we will discuss how
to plan for such a situation.
There are many parts to a comprehensive disaster recovery plan. In
addition to thinking about your computer data and equipment, you also
need to consider access to your paper records, personnel shortages, and
alternative locations among other things. You also need to develop
procedures according to a timeline -- what are routine procedures (like
backups) that are followed daily, what to do prior to an
anticipated situation (like a hurricane), what manual procedures to
follow during an emergency, and what to do after the emergency
passes. While those other topics are necessary to consider, in this
article we will focus only on the preparation phase for computer data
and equipment.
The first thing to consider is: what kind of
disaster do you want to plan for? Planning for every conceivable
disaster, however unlikely, is possible but very expensive. So think
about which scenarios seem most likely for you, such as: the computer's
hard drive crashes, no electricity in your office for an extended period
of time, flooding which prevents you from getting to your computers, or
a fire which destroys all of your computer equipment.
Regardless
of what disaster you are preparing for, you always need backups. There
are two main types of backups -- local and online. A local backup is
where you use a local device such as an external hard drive or DVD to
copy your data. An online backup is a service which uses a secure web
server to store your important data. If you use a local backup, be sure
to store these backups in an off-site location such as a bank safety
deposit box. Regardless of the type of backup, you also should store a
copy of all your operating system and application CDs in a safety
deposit box. So if your computer's hard drive crashes, you can install
your applications onto a new computer from the CDs, and recover the data
from the online server.
To plan for no electricity in your
office, you need to have an offsite location available. That offsite
location (somebody's house, another office location, etc.) would need
access to the Internet. Then you can take your computers from the
office that doesn't have electricity and set them up in another office
that does have electricity.
If you don't have access to your
computers, your business could be in big trouble in just a few days. So
your disaster recovery plan should include the option of borrowing or
purchasing computers if necessary. Then you can setup these new
computers in the offsite location, install your applications from your
CDs, and restore your data from the online backup.
Similarly,
as long as you have a copy of your CDs in another location and access to
your online backup, you can purchase a new computer and recover from a
fire in fairly short order.
So regardless of the type of
emergency, as long as you have a copy of your application CDs and access
to your data, you can easily recover from just about any disaster. For
help with setting up and testing your own disaster recovery plan,
please call our office at 713-861-4183. We have the experience and
knowledge to keep you protected.