12-27-21 | Blog Post

5 Steps to Prepare for Hurricane Season

Blog Posts

Hurricane season is already upon us here in the United States. The frequency and severity of hurricanes will only increase in the coming months, especially August and September. Don’t get caught in the path of a storm without an established, tested, and confident plan to protect your business. Below are 5 of the most important steps to prepare for Hurricane season.

#1 Perform a Risk Assessment

Which functions and operations are the most essential to your business, and which are most prone to problems during a disaster? Do you have essential supplies and materials on hand for both your employees and your business equipment? Conducting a risk assessment and identifying what’s vital to your business and what you can’t afford to lose is a critical step in creating a Disaster Recovery Plan. Ensuring continuity for your business during disasters is where NewCloud Networks can help and provide peace of mind.

#2 Test your Disaster Recovery Plan

Does your business have a Disaster Recovery Plan? Does your Disaster Recovery Plan involve the Cloud? If your business can’t afford prolonged downtime, you should consider Cloud-Based Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS). The Cloud can significantly reduce the cost of creating a backup environment by avoiding the upfront costs and maintenance of additional infrastructure in an offsite data center. Using Cloud Disaster Recovery can also satisfy compliance regulations for data recovery and help execute your DR plan. NewCloud Networks’ DRaaS solution will help you save time, money, and feel prepared for any disaster.

#3 Backup your data to the Cloud

Most businesses can’t afford to lose precious data, files, and information for minutes, let alone permanently. Following the 3-2-1 rule can ensure your data is accessible and highly available. The plan states that your business should have 3 copies of its data at all times, on 2 different media (Cloud, for example), with 1 copy at an offsite location. Backing up your data not only creates a copy of your data, but an offsite, non-tangible media form of data storage!

#4 Assess the integrity of your facilities and data centers BEFORE the storm

If you have an onsite data center and facilities in the path of a natural disaster, ensure that the buildings’ structures are integrally sound. Hire a contractor to test your walls and roofing, and ensure that your most important rooms are not susceptible to flooding. Move computers and other technology to higher levels above the flood level. Secure items that may get tossed around during the storm and board-up windows.

#5 Have a Restoration plan

DRaaS can be a viable portion of your restoration plan. It can give you reliable and responsive access to your data in the wake of downed servers and damaged data centers. A restoration plan should also include the rebuilding of damaged facilities, a communication strategy with employees, and a continuation plan for critical business functions. This could even include a temporary building relocation or teleworking arrangements for employees.

The Bottom Line:

Disaster can strike at any moment. The time to prepare is now. Be ready for hurricane season or any disaster with custom, affordable backup and disaster recovery solutions from Otava. Learn how to protect your business today.

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