Disaster Planning 101

Filed in archive Planning/Strategy on October 30, 2007

It takes large-scale disasters, natural or otherwise, for us to rethink our data storage. Such is the case for nearly every business in southern California. An article by Rob Ederle at e-Commerce Times proves the point. He mentions some of the products available for data backup and recovery. Yet one thing remains to be said: these products are great, but unless you're backing up to a place far out of harm's way, you're spinning your proverbial hard drive for naught.

As a risk management geek for years (as a writer and a risk manager wanna-be), I've long preached the need for businesses to be sensible about their disaster planning. It's not enough to have the biggest and best solution that will give you instant access to your data post-disaster. If that data is housed in the same building, or even the same region as the disaster that's just wiped out that region, it's as though you were unprotected.

I can't preach this often enough or loud enough - your backup storage location should be well out of your area. Do NOT assume that the tornado that hits your main building will avoid your backup location, or the hurricane winds won't blow the roof off your high-and-dry storage facility and damage those "safe" files anyway. Be smart about your backup - choose a location (even two locations) that is not exposed to the same catastrophic event as your main location. Businesses in New Orleans that didn't consider this are still trying to recover lost data. Some may never be that lucky. Expect the absolute worst to happen and plan for it.