North Florida Technology Consultants

Disaster Preparation: Are You Ready For Hurricane Season?

It’s hurricane season once again and here in Florida we are no strangers to what that can mean for our safety and our livelihoods. One of the things people often forget about when preparing for a disaster is their IT infrastructure. There are a few simple steps that you can take to ensure that the computers and servers in your business have the best chance of surviving a storm.

The first thing to do is make sure you have a good offsite backup. If it looks like a storm is headed your way, stop and make an extra backup and take it to a secure place. There is no such thing as too many backups.

You will also want to make sure that all of your computers that sit on the floor are placed on top of a desk. It doesn’t take more than an inch or so of water to completely destroy a computer sitting on the floor.

Make sure that the server and any other equipment is covered with a heavy duty plastic in case a leak develops in the roof above.

When you leave before the impending storm, turn off all equipment and unplug the power cables. Make sure that the network equipment is unplugged as well to prevent a power surge going through the data network and damaging the computers and servers.

The above items should be just a small part of an overall disaster recovery and business continuity plan. Help for developing a plan can be found at the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety http://www.disastersafety.org/ofbInfo?execution=e5s1&type=ofb_basic