A team of well-known forecasters from Colorado State University say nine of these storms are expected to become hurricanes and four of these major hurricanes (3,4,5) with sustained winds of 111 mph or greater.
Of greater consequence, the team says there is a 72 percent chance at least one of these storms will major hurricanes will make landfall somewhere on the U.S. coast from Texas to Maine.
Part of severe weather preparedness for a business owner should be having good business continuity and an IT disaster recovery plan in place. Disaster recovery plans have become crucial for nearly every industry that relies on connectivity and uptime for business survival. Although some CIOs might not see the reasoning behind budgeting for a disaster recovery plan, as a valuable subset of business continuity planning, disaster recovery can save a business from shutting down completely in an unpredictable event – such as a major hurricane.
Business continuity goes beyond simply ensuring disaster recovery needs are met. Typically, business continuity is a combination of hardware and software technologies that keep data in two different places at the same time. For example, if a production server in one building goes down, the data and the application are ‘failed over’ to a second system that the application can then use. Usually, the application only pauses and users do not even know there was a problem.
For cloud users, disaster recovery can be even more convenient. A managed hosting infrastructure, like cloud services, gives businesses the ability to access data and systems from anywhere at any time. Not only does this effectively move systems offsite - improving disaster recovery and enabling business continuity - it also creates a more flexible infrastructure for day to day operations. Cloud storage infrastructures provide a solution that treats disaster recovery as part of a broader business continuity plan.
Just like you would keep your family safe in the event of severe weather by putting a plan in place ahead of time, it’s important to think now about what to do if your company is hit by an unplanned disaster. It helps make sure all policies and procedures are understood, as well as having peace of mind knowing you’ve got a plan to keep your company safe.
The Atlantic hurricane season starts June 1 and ends November 30. The Department of Homeland Security and FEMA partnered to create ready.gov for business. This organization helps owners of small-to-medium sized businesses prepare their employees, operations, and assets in the event of an emergency. There are variety of tools and resources available such as program management, planning, and implementation including disaster recovery plans, business continuity plans, emergency response plans, crisis communication plans, and more.
Recovery Networks are leaders in data and system protection, recovery, hosting and infrastructure solutions. Contact one of their experts to assist in designing and deploying an effective backup and recovery solution for your organization. For more information about Recovery Networks, go to www.recoverynetworks.com or contact us at 215.809.1300.
Source: ready.gov, FEMA partner, colostate.edu April 2013
