Hurricane Preparation Tips for Businesses

BOSTON — As the hurricane season begins this month, businesses should make sure to evaluate their data backup and recovery procedures as part of their disaster recovery preparedness checklist. For most businesses, without the data there is no recovery. Iron Mountain offers these five important steps for preventing business critical data from being destroyed by a natural disaster:

1. Make backup copies of all critical data. Companies need to ensure all of their critical data is backed up -- not just primary servers and the data center. Take an inventory of your business information. How much information is sitting on remote servers and employee PCs and laptops? Is that information backed-up as well?

2. Protect your backup data off-site. Data backup is just one facet of data protection. When businesses fail to take their backup data off site, they leave their data vulnerable to disaster at the office. Send your backup data off-site to a trusted third-party that will ensure you have your data when and where you need it. Many businesses have their backup tapes transported to a secure off-site location, or they employ online backup services that automate the process for them.

3. Have a disaster recovery plan and test it. Companies that regularly test their disaster recovery plan are able to respond more effectively in the event of a real disaster if they have anticipated and rehearsed what they would need to do to recover their systems in another location, practiced the escalation process and determined which tapes are needed, where they should go, and how to have them delivered. With regular testing of their plans, companies have "pre-made" decisions that are more difficult to make during an actual crisis. And don't forget to include the disaster recovery vendors when simulating events -- you'll have a much better idea of how well they're prepared to respond, especially if you test without giving prior notification.

4. Test your backup solution. Companies should conduct simple restore tests with their backup solutions either weekly or after critical events, like the closing of the quarterly books. Since there are typically so many steps involved in the backup process, it is easy for a simple mistake or oversight to prevent a successful restore. Testing dramatically increases the likelihood of finding a problem before it's too late.

5. Communicate early and often with your Disaster Recovery vendors. Have you pre-arranged planning with your business partners and suppliers to ensure that you can get what you need? Make sure you understand the protocols for "declaring a disaster" with your off-site data protection provider. Don't wait until after the disaster has occurred: put them on alert and make sure they understand and can meet your expected time window, and know where you want your recovery data delivered when the "bell rings." In preparation of an impending hurricane or storm, you can also ask your off-site data protection vendor to move your data to a location further away to ensure speedier delivery to a hot-site once you've declared a disaster.

For more tips and disaster recovery best practices, visit Iron Mountain's knowledge center: http://www.ironmountain.com/US/knowledge/protection

Source: PRNewswire