Imagine that Hurricane Sandy came knocking at your door. Would your IT infrastructure be safe? Would your staff have a suitable workspace to continue operations? Don’t let your business be a victim of a disaster as some experienced in New York and New Jersey when their cooling systems were forced to power down and flooding killed their network. These events are further explained in an article entitled In Sandy’s Aftermath, Epic Challenges for Data Centers about some of the effects Hurricane Sandy had on data centers. To ensure that your disaster recovery strategy can withstand the test of a disaster, here are four important items to consider.
Safe Zone Location
Your disaster recovery site should be located in a so called low incident zone in the United States. This is an area that has a low risk for natural disasters. If you select such a location for your disaster recovery site you can be reassured that your data will not only be secure, but your IT infrastructure will also be safe from possible flooding or overheating.
Worksite Recovery
Your disaster recovery strategy should include a safe zone, not only for your data and IT infrastructure, but for your staff as well. Planning for worksite recovery can ensure that if a disaster affects your business you can continue operations at a data center that provides you with a stable environment, not affected by the disaster.
Onsite Support 24x7x365
In case your staff cannot get to your disaster recovery site quickly, make sure your recovery plan includes the availability of trained IT staff that can assist you with all of your support and maintenance needs. Ideally your disaster recovery site should have highly qualified support personnel available 24x7x365.
Network Services
Network services that provide access to several carriers at once ensures the most reliable routing for your network connectivity. Such built-in redundancy will allow you to not only use the carrier of your choice, but have backup as well, should your primary carrier suffer an outage because of the disaster.
The Bottom Line: When it comes to your disaster recovery strategy, if you do nothing else you should ensure that your disaster recovery site is located in a safe zone. Otherwise, your disaster recovery strategy could very well end in disaster.
