Hurricane shutters? Installed. Two weeks worth of food and water? In the pantry. Playing cards and Johnny Walker Blue? Locked and loaded.
It would be nice if the above items alone satisfied the hurricane preparedness checklist, but alas, they do not.
Businesses must prepare in advanced for unplanned outages, hurricanes, and tropical storms. As this year's hurricane season is drawing to a close consider yourself lucky and take the opportunity to prepare for next year. Spending time in the IT world, we see firsthand how severe weather can disrupt business continuity for weeks and even months on end; if not shuttering less cash healthy businesses entirely.
Any time this topic is raised I am reminded of an old light-manufacturing client of ours whose failure to back-up properly left them without invoices, receivables, and even the strategy on how to create their products. While it is easiest to simply blame Mother Nature, most weather-related business interruptions are, at least somewhat, caused by lack of preparation and planning. The saying “Plan, Prepare, Practice” will help small and medium size business owners ride out The Big One in case we see another Andrew-strength any time soon.
Plan
A written natural disaster plan should be in place and shared with all staff members. Your plan should document important contact details (employees, insurers, vendors, and government agencies), system administrator passwords (in a safe place), and actual steps each employee should take during the time of crisis. Delegation is important, but redundancy is just as vital. Many employees will leave town, so be sure to adjust for this. Keep several paper copies on-hand both off-site and at the office as well as in everyone’s inbox.
Although geared toward nonprofits, I am a fan of the template and checklist found at www.npccny.org/info/Disaster_Planning.doc. The SBA also offers resources at http://www.sba.gov/services/disasterassistance/disasterpreparedness/index.html.
Prepare
Physical and electronic preparations are a must. Much of the physical preparation falls outside the scope of IT planning, but generally includes items such as using hurricane shutters, securing doors, and taking precautions against water damage. On the IT side of things all business should:
• Inventory hardware and software: Create a list that documents every single piece of hardware and software your organization owns along with serial numbers. Include copies of purchase receipts. Store these in a safe off-site location.
• Diagram your network structure: We can’t recreate your network without knowing what it looked like in the first place.
• Invest in a UPS. A UPS, or uninterruptible power supply, keeps your electronics alive for the minutes (or longer) after power is lost. This gives critical time to save your files and power down devices. If you anticipate conducting business in the immediate aftermath of a hurricane then consider a diesel generator as well.
• Forward your business numbers to cell phones or off-site numbers. Even during a disaster, that great sales lead may be calling.
• Back up your data: Important data should be backed up both locally and remotely. Run regularly scheduled backups and test to make sure your backup is working properly.
Practice
Test your plan to make sure it fits your business model and to ensure familiarity with it. Keep contact and vendor info updated. Every six months or less your system should be rebuilt from the backup (on a staging server) and your employees should practice disaster drills.
Hopefully you will never have to enact your IT recovery plan. In case you do, documenting your hardware and software, keeping contact information handy, and taking backups will save your business time, energy, and money in case disaster strikes.
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The above article contains helpful hints that may work. It is not a substitute for one-on-one professional advice.
