Over the last couple of months, we have seen a series of hurricanes cause billions of dollars in damage and leave many business owners devastated.  If storms like these, and other natural disasters, are a risk to your business, it’s time to start making a plan. Here are a few things to consider when developing a watertight disaster recovery plan.

Know Your Location: Ideally, you’re going to want to set up a backup location in a separate, offsite facility at least 100 miles away from your main location. If having an offsite location is not a feasible option, it is important to be sure that the location that is available is weatherproof; this means that it should be able to withstand wind speeds of close to 160 mph, and all critical equipment should also be a minimum of 18 inches off the ground in case of flooding. This will ensure the safety of your back-up system.

 Determine a Back-up Hierarchy: There will always be some things in your serves that are more important than others. To make sure that these pieces are the ones that get recovered first, it is important to prioritize the files in case of disaster.

Take Advantage of the Cloud: The cloud allows you to store data in high-availability, geo-redundant servers. This means that your back-up information can be obtained from any device, anywhere. All of your information can be recovered by any authorized person, from any device capable of connecting to the Internet.

Use Image Based Backups: Image-based backups take a snapshot of your systems, creating a copy of the OS and all stored data. By relying more on photos, your information can be more easily recovered and you will be much less likely to lose any information.