How to keep your business safe during Hurricane Season
Use our helpful checklist to make sure you’re prepared for downtime
Hurricane Season is here! Are you ready?
If you’ve lost valuable data or experienced a loss during downtime because of a hurricane, you’re not alone. The best plan of action is to look back on those times and take the necessary steps to prevent another data disaster.
To help you, we’ve created a handy checklist of how you can get your business prepared this hurricane season. By making sure you have all these things ready at a moment’s notice, you’ll be in great shape to keep afloat should disaster strike.
1) Backups to protect your most valuable data
Data backups are now a part of our lives. So why do so many people and companies forego the first step in preparing for the worst?
While there are many types of backups — local backups, cloud backups, desktop backups, server backups, and more — they’re all readily available. The key is having someone to guide you in your backup needs and requirements for your infrastructure.
Some backup systems can be so affordable that you’d be amazed you didn’t start years ago. Some can be a bit more pricey, but you’ll often find they’re well worth the funds if you consider what you’d lose without a proper backup.
2) Cell phone apps that allow you to receive and send calls when your office is out of power or your internet is down
Having a new phone system is a great tool, but are you using the functions at their full capacity? Does your VoIP phone system also provide cell phone apps in case your office has no power or your internet is down?
Lessons from previous hurricanes here in Central Florida have shown that power isn’t the only issue anymore: major internet providers like Spectrum have experienced outages for as long as two weeks in some areas following a hurricane.
If you didn’t have a backup plan for your phone system during that time that means even though the lights were on, your phones weren’t ringing. When your phones don’t ring, you’re losing income!
3) A prepared plan of action for your staff and IT department for when disaster strikes
And finally, a simple plan of action can go a long way. Having a to do list when disaster strikes can help you and your staff keep a cool head and know what to expect.
Don’t wait until the last second to contact your IT company in a panic to figure out what the first steps will be in recovering what you’ve lost. Start today!
Your plan could be something as simple as a list of things to do to prepare for a storm, or a list of items to complete in the worst case scenario to begin recovering your company and keeping your doors open.
If you have all of these checklist items marked as completed, you’re ready to go!
If you have questions, give us a call and we’ll help guide you towards a solution to keep you up and running, your data safe, and your phones ringing.