Patrick Domingues

A disaster plan is essential for businesses in the South. A hurricane preparedness plan is just as essential for digital and electronic assets. In this blog post, we answer common questions about creating a digital disaster recovery plan. These include: What does it look like? Should I have one? How often should I update it? And so on. It applies to natural disasters such as hurricanes, but it can also be applied to other types of disasters.

1. Business Continuity Plan

In order to maintain operations in the case of a disaster, your business must have a plan. It is important to know what you have and how you need to protect it. A Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Plan (BCDR) allows businesses to continue operating even if they encounter a variety of issues, including natural disasters or cyber-attacks. View my link for a Simple Checklist For Creating A Business Continuity Plan

2. Evaluate and Inventory

Before you evaluate your hardware and software, first create an inventory of assets. Make sure to include all of your hardware and software. Include the make, model, operating systems, network devices, serial numbers, and licenses. Keep the information off-site or in the cloud so that you can access it if anything happens to your business.

3. IT Recovery Plan

Businesses should develop an IT Recovery Plan. The plan should include a strategy to ensure that all critical infrastructure can be recovered.

Identify critical software applications and data and the hardware required to run them. Using standardized hardware will help to replicate and reimage new hardware. Ensure that copies of program software are available to enable re-installation on replacement equipment. Prioritize hardware and software restoration.

Document the IT disaster recovery plan as part of the business continuity plan. Test the plan periodically to make sure that it works.

4. Back Up On-site and Off-site

Since your business is a hurricane zone, you will want to keep your data safe. Some companies store their data off-site to a secure hurricane grade building, which is a great way to safeguard it. They make sure that their data centers are not near fault lines or in hurricane zones. You can also back up your data off-site to cloud storage. This is great practice for everyone.

5. Protect Electronics

In addition to securing doors and windows, IT admins should take additional steps to protect computers from the elements.

• Move electronics to a safe room if possible (keep devices away from windows).
• Move electronics off the ground, to protect from flooding.
• Shut down computers and unplug power to machines to protect from power surges.
• Unplug Ethernet cables from computers or docking stations.
• Unplug Ethernet cables from Power Over Ethernet devices like your Voice Over IP Phone.
• Unplug power to Printers and any other electronic devices to protect from power surges.
• Use plastic bags or sheets to ensure some short-term protection.

I hope this article was helpful, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me. If you would like to be notified of when I create a new post, you can subscribe to my blog alert.