With Hurricane Florence now in the history books, having left behind a swath of damage that covers several states, it’s a good time to start considering your own disaster recovery plan. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) itself notes that 40% of small businesses won’t reopen after a natural disaster, so if you want to avoid that fate, setting up a disaster recovery plan can help ensure that the next disaster isn’t a fatal one.

How to Set up the Right Disaster Recovery Plan

The right disaster recovery plan is subjective, but the best ones will give you the best chance at getting back to work.

Know what needs protecting. It’s not enough to say “protect all the data,” because the more data you have to protect, the more resource-intensive the protection will be. So start with an audit of what data is on hand. There are certain requirements for some kinds of data—personally identifiable data, as it’s known—so be sure to address any points of compliance that may be required after it becomes clear what kind of data is on hand.

Understand your data sources. Knowing how to protect data also requires an understanding of where that data comes from. The growth of Internet of Things (IoT) systems requires a whole new kind of disaster recovery plan that can accommodate these sources.

Test your plan early. The best plans are the ones that you know will likely work in advance. So rather than setting up a plan and waiting for a disaster, pick a day to operate as if you’d just had a disaster, and respond accordingly. It can be expensive in both actual resources and lost opportunity, but preparation for a disaster can prevent so much more in losses.

Get the right people. A skills gap is often seen in many companies these days, and a disaster recovery plan must have people with the right skills behind them. Process knowledge, disaster recovery planning, and other skills are vital to ensure your plan is built properly from the beginning.

When You Need Help Setting up a Disaster Recovery Plan

No one can know just which kind of disaster will hit, so looking for some help in disaster recovery can be a winning move. Just get in touch with us at EmconIT and let us help. We’ve got complete data center relocation capability, and since we worked with brands including DellEMC, HPE 3Par, and NetApp, we’ve got the kind of background you’ll need to make disaster recovery plans happen. The time to prepare for a disaster is before the next one hits, so start today with us at EmconIT.