Imagine what it must have been like for businesses in New Orleans to recover their data post-Katrina. If they were smart, they had taken advantage of offsite storage. If they were even smarter, that storage was in another geographic region.

It's not enough to move your data offsite and across the street or across town, especially if you're in an area where a major event could wipe out your backup data. Such was the case for more than one New Orleans-based business. Cottage industries sprang up around the issue of data recovery from damaged hardware. Hard drives and storage units were being meticulously examined and in many cases, restored. However, not all made it back, and that's why it's important to examine your offsite plan.

I remember writing about data losses post-9/11, and all the experts I spoke with urged businesses to move their operations to a different geographic location. Some heeded the warning while the devastation of terrorism was fresh in their memories. Others took the wait-and-see approach. For those in hurricane-prone areas, I can only hope a good number of them already understood the risk they faced and took action.

If you're storing your files in the same building, shame on you. One event, even a small one, can wipe out years of data. If you're backing up to a remote location - say in the next building - that's better, but what if a large event such as a tornado, flood, hurricane or fire took out both your building and the one next to yours? It makes more sense to move your data to a region that will most likely not suffer the same damage by a localized event. That way, your data has a fighting chance, and your business interruption will be kept to a minimum.