Hurricane Alert: Is Your Data Backed Up and Secure?

The 2020 hurricane season is underway, and we’ve already seen the suffering these huge storms can bring. It’s been a busy season already, with a record-setting nine named storms as of August 6. Compare that to the historical average of just two named storms by early August. And there are plenty more in the forecast. In fact, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predicts an extremely active hurricane season for the Atlantic Basin this year.While you may not know if you’ll be hit by a hurricane, preparation is your best defense, especially when it comes to the precious data that your organization relies on every day. That starts by making sure your backup and disaster recovery plan is up to date. You also need to take steps to make sure your hardware is protected, as much as possible, from a hurricane’s devastation. Floods and high winds can wreak havoc and make accessing your data center impossible, even if your equipment stays safe. The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) recently shared its recommendations for helping small businesses prepare for hurricane season. Those include:

• Back up your data and make sure you can access important files remotely in case your onsite systems are inaccessible or damaged.
• Implement a backup power supply system, like a generator, to help you keep essential systems online during a storm and get them back up and running once it passes.
• Establish an emergency communications plan, including up-to-date contact information for all relevant stakeholders—customers, employees, suppliers, and so on.

For a complete list of SBA small business preparedness recommendations, read the complete article. Should your business suffer the consequences of a hurricane, the SBA also has disaster recovery loan programs to help you get back on your feet. Downtime and lost data can cause nearly as much damage to a business as a hurricane itself. That makes backups essential during hurricane season. All of your data should be backed up as frequently as needed to meet your RTO and RPO. In addition to your primary backup, you should also store a copy offsite in a secure location.StorageCraft® OneXafe®, a converged data platform that unifies data protection with scale-out storage, is an easy to use solution for your backup strategy, onsite, offsite, and in the cloud. For a total business continuity solution consider cloud-based disaster recovery, such as StorageCraft Cloud Services. Learn more about how StorageCraft’s backup and disaster recovery solutions can help you be hurricane-ready by scheduling a personalized, live demo with a StorageCraft engineer today.