| Every company today needs to have a solid disaster | | | | Companies which stored their data onsite via tape |
| recovery plan. A disaster recovery plan outlines how | | | | backup lost all of their data to the floodwaters. |
| your business will protect its electronic data, and | | | | Companies which stored their data backup tapes |
| what the process will be to restore that data, in the | | | | offsite locally still lost their data due to the |
| case of a manmade or natural disaster. | | | | floodwaters at their offsite storage location. (For a |
| With the recent hurricanes and events of the world, | | | | small company, the offsite storage location of choice |
| such as 9/11, it is vital that all businesses be able to | | | | is generally at the business owner or IT Manager's |
| recover their data no matter what happens to their | | | | home.) |
| physical building. | | | | For the companies who use offsite data storage |
| In addition to large disasters, smaller disasters such as | | | | through an online backup service far from their |
| building fires and vandalism happen to companies | | | | physical location, they were able to easily retrieve |
| around the United States each and every day. | | | | their data and salvage their business by restarting it |
| The ability to retrieve your data after any form of | | | | up in another location if they chose to. When they |
| disaster can mean the difference between your | | | | evacuated, these organizations were able to continue |
| business's ultimate success and failure. Your electronic | | | | with activity wherever they sought refuge. |
| data consists of all of its contacts, financial | | | | As you can see in the example above, one of the |
| information, e-mail messages, documents, | | | | best additions to any disaster recovery plan is the |
| spreadsheets, databases, and so much more. In | | | | use of offsite data backup through an online backup |
| essence, your business's electronic data is the most | | | | service. Online backup services allow your business to |
| valuable aspect of your business. | | | | easily backup your valuable electronic data onto their |
| What is your company without any of your | | | | servers via a secure Internet connection. By using |
| electronic data? If you lost all of your electronic data | | | | online data storage, you can insure that you have a |
| today, would you know who owes you money and | | | | copy of your valuable electronic data far away from |
| be able to prove it in order to collect payments? | | | | your own physical location. No matter what happens |
| Would you know what items you have in your | | | | in your local area: fire, flood, earthquake, hurricane, |
| inventory and which are currently on order? Would | | | | terrorist attack, etc., your company will ultimately still |
| you know who all of your customers are and have a | | | | have access to its data. |
| way to contact them? | | | | A solid disaster recovery plan will ensure that your |
| Take a moment to think about any information for | | | | business is not lost due to circumstances beyond |
| your company which sits on a computer or file | | | | your control. By planning ahead and considering all of |
| server. What would your organization be tomorrow if | | | | the things that could go wrong, you are protecting |
| all of that information just disappeared? | | | | your business from total loss should something |
| We have all seen the terrible aftermath of Hurricane | | | | actually happen. |
| Katrina. However, let's take a moment to look at it | | | | My guess is that there are a lot of establishments in |
| from an electronic data standpoint. Which companies | | | | the New Orleans area which now wish they had |
| were able to recover their valuable electronic data | | | | previously had a disaster recovery plan. |
| and which were not? | | | | |