Disaster Recovery: Will Your Data Come Back with the Lights?

02/27/07

When the power went off in New York, Cleveland, Toronto, and elsewhere, many employees were happy to get a day off. But another group of workers—those in charge of data recovery or other aspects of disaster preparedness—were losing sleep and biting nails. Would the data infrastructure reappear when the juice flowed once again? It’s bad enough to lose power, but even worse to lose customer lists, sales histories, accounting data, and intellectual property.

According to tape-drive manufacturer Imation, 30 percent of the small businesses it surveyed recently had no formal data backup procedures or else followed their procedures haphazardly. If a power surge fried a critical drive, they’d either have no way to restore crucial data, or the data they put back would be weeks or even months old. That kind of disaster that can smother a business overnight.

Most IT professionals, of course, breathed a sigh of relief when the power resumed flowing. After all, a power failure is not an earthquake. But what if the disaster had been a fire or flood? And threats don’t come just from terrorists or tornadoes, remember—e-mail viruses can also cripple a business.

“Many businesses may learn the hard way about the importance of backing up data by forgoing essential IT practices,” says Dianne McAdam, an analyst with Imation’s Data Mobility Group. “There is more to backup than just backing up your data.”

What Small Businesses Can Do
Imation offers the following tips to help small companies prepare for and protect themselves from disaster:

• Maintain a documented backup plan. Make sure more than one person knows how to perform it. Back up data every day to removable data storage media, like optical discs (CDs or DVDs) or tape formats. Do a full backup at least once a week and test your ability to restore the data at least quarterly.

• Store media in a cool, dry place and in a secure location, far away from your computer. Store at least one full backup copy offsite.

• Guard computer systems against viruses and other preventable data destroyers. Install a virus protection program and update it regularly.

The Larger Issue: Preparing for Disaster
Backing up data is but one slice of a well-developed disaster-recovery plan. Yet more than half of all small businesses rate themselves as “fair” or “poor” when asked to judge their disaster-recovery plans. Many have no plan at all.

A disaster-recovery plan focuses on bringing operations back to normal as quickly as possible. It’s also designed to ensure the health and safety of employees no matter what the threat.

Don’t have such a plan? Start by categorizing the risks you face, both manmade and acts of nature. Plan for each by creating a recovery strategy, mapping safety systems and exit routes, assigning roles and tasks to employees, ensuring everyone can leave your building safely if necessary, and developing ways to operate off premises.

Doing this task now couldn’t be more important. As Brian Clarke, regional vice president of the American Society of Safety Engineers, points out, “An emergency is not a time to plan. It’s a time to react.”

Use the Blackout to Spur Preparation
Imation says many businesses became better prepared for disasters after 9/11. Nearly 56 percent of those that changed their practices, for example, began testing their recovery plans regularly. Another 43 percent moved data off site, 39 percent increased their budgets for data backup, and 26 percent created a formal disaster-recovery plan for the first time.

Consider the recent blackout a wake-up call if your data and disaster-recovery plans fall short of ideal. Prepare now, and your business can stand up even to the power of a hurricane.

Many smart people have already given a lot of thought to the idea of preparing for disasters, saving you time. Just follow these links or give your G.Neil customer service representative a call at 800-999-9111 to find out more about these disaster-planning products:

Crisis Management Tool
Disaster Preparedness Kit
Exit Route Compliance Bundle
First Aid Kits
Emergency Exit and Evacuation Kit