It’s that time of year again and this year’s hurricane season has wasted no time getting started. With as many as 8 hurricanes predicted for a “near normal” hurricane season and Dorian on our doorstep, preparations are underway.
But besides securing supplies, boarding up our homes and making preparations for our four-legged friends, what can we do to make sure our networks and computers fare the season with minimal damages?
Our hurricane-preparedness list for your home or business network can give you some tips that you may have overlooked.
Backups
This is the single most critical step that you can take to ensure your network and its data stays safe during hurricanes or any other natural disaster. If you have a backup solution on location, begin by making sure that the data is readable and all of your data has been captured. Then, make sure to bring the disk or tape with you off site to ensure the safety of the data from flooding, fire or theft. Ideally though, sending the disk or hardware to a location that is not under direct threat of a hurricane is the best solution.
If you back up to a secondary or external hard disk drive or to an external hard disk drive, you can remove it and take it off site. Keeping backup copies in the same location risks loss of all backup data from external causes or theft.
Our Windows and Apple certified technicians always recommend a cloud-based backup solution. Ensuring that your data is stored and protected in the cloud and away from the threat of hurricanes is the very best and easiest solution to protect sensitive data and prevent loss of profits.
Protect that Hardware!
When you are home and preparing for a hurricane, you usually board up windows, place valuables high above ground level and bring in outdoor furniture. But before evacuating or leaving your storefront, make sure to protect your valuable computer hardware by shutting down all computers, servers, routers, printers, switches and unplugging them from power sources. It’s not enough to just turn them off. Make sure you physically unplug the plug from the wall to avoid damage from fluctuating AC power during storms.
If there is a possibility of water damage, encase your equipment in garbage bags after shutting all equipment off and unplugging from the wall. Move computers, servers, printers and hardware to higher ground such as tops of desks. Once the storm has passed and you come back to your place of business, if your equipment show signs of water damage, do not plug it in. It’s important that you call a certified technician in order to avoid further damage to the equipment and yourself.
Have any questions on cloud back ups or preparing your network for a hurricane? Give us a call at 239-394-1241 or email us and we will have one of our Apple-certified or Windows-certified technicians give you a call back!