When starting a business or simply operating a long-existing one, there is a lot that you can control. But one thing that is out of your hands is the sudden, sheer power of natural disasters and the varying effects they can have on your operating systems. The one aspect that you do have in your control, however, is your ability to prepare your systems and servers for such an event. Server hard drives have become increasingly intelligent over the years, and it behooves smart business leaders to take advantage of these upgraded capabilities.

5 steps in considering your natural disaster data plan

Think of the five steps below as a starting point for your natural disaster data plan. Without one, especially in 2017, any business is putting itself at a tremendous risk.

1.Recognize Your Risks: The first place to start is by simply prioritizing your risk factors. A dentist office in North Dakota doesn’t need to worry about hurricanes, and a hair salon in Florida need not concern itself with ice storms. Simple as it sounds, with so many preparations, priorities are key.

2.Create a Recovery Plan: Perhaps you are starting a plan right here, right now. Natural disasters are an inevitability of long-lasting businesses. Your ability to pick yourself up is the important part, and you can use resources such as the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) for great overall outlines.

3.Documentation: After such an event, your virtual world may seem like one big puzzle. That’s why it’s critical to document the steps it will take to restart your systems, and to make sure you save a physical copy, especially in such cases where something like a server hard driveneeds to be quickly relocated.

4.New Venues: Although everyone thinks about backing up data, it’s a good idea to form a plan where you can fall back on your physical environment. You can’t set up a delicate hard drive just anywhere.

5.New Data: With that said, backing up data in remote and easily accessible locations is one of the primary challenges for any business preparing for natural disasters. There truly is no better disaster plan than one that incorporates multiple identically replicated data deposits.

The best advice is to start simple, and expand. A natural disaster recovery plan doesn’t come to fruition overnight. And when dealing with something as important and sensitive as your company’s server hard drives, the time spent is well worth it.