Just as some hospitals in low-lying areas of Manhattan were preparing to evacuate on Friday afternoon and others all along the East Coast were readying for the wind, rain and power outages expected from Hurricane Irene, Boston-based Iron Mountain, an information management services company, offered 10 tips on how best to weather the storm.
1. Communicate your disaster recovery plan
Start by reviewing your DR plan – doing so will ensure you’ve answered all the critical preparatory questions prior to a disaster, which will enable your backup vendor to respond immediately either when an actual event occurs or when there is an imminent threat to your information.
2. Upload your current plan
Upload a copy of your current DR plan to a web-based inventory tool, like Iron Mountain’s SecureSync. This ensures that you can access the plan from anywhere at a moment’s notice.
3. Think about transportation
Prior to an emergency, make sure you have considered your preferred method of shipment to/from your recovery location or “hot site.”
4. Confirm your authorized contacts
Many DR vendors require at least two authorized contacts to initiate a DR plan – it’s important to include contacts that reside outside the immediate area of the data center in the event of a regional disaster. Regularly confirm these names with your vendor and verify their contact information.
5. Be proactive
Airports may suspend service and highways will be crowded as emergency evacuation routes. That’s why in a real situation, it’s crucial to initiate the DR procedures as soon as possible. Do this by requesting early pickup/transport of most recent copies of backup tapes. This will ensure that your tapes and other info arrive to the “hot site” on time and safely – and avoiding close roads or airports.
6. Test your plan
You’ve heard it before, but test your DR plan at least twice a year by conducting door-to-door simulated drills on a scheduled basis. It’s helpful to include all of your business partners in the test too – such as your transit, communication and records management vendors. This will ensure everyone understands their specific role in the DR plan. Involve all relevant internal departments too – since a real-life disaster can have far reaching effects beyond just the IT department.
7. Stay Alert
When the weather is a threat – being prepared and staying informed are critical to successfully protecting vital info and maintaining business operations. If severe weather is forecast, be sure you’re not off-guard. Check out severe weather tips and other best practices: www.ironmountain.com/alerts
8. Address Business Continuity Needs
Once your DR plan is in place, plan how you will restart your business operations when your info arrives at your recovery location/hot site. Consider that staff may be personally impacted and unable to travel to the hot site; therefore outline contingent staff and peripheral equipment – servers, telephone systems, storage systems, etc. to return to “business as usual.”
9. Think Beyond Backup Tapes
Store the following and business peripherals offsite to make them readily available in the event of a disaster
- Copy of DR plan
- Command center supplies
- Hardware configurations
- Encryption keys
- Communications set up
- Comprehensive vendor/supplier list
- Documentation/operating system disks
- Software licenses
- Basic admin office needs
- Building plans
- Spare hardware – offline
- Original documents/blueprints
10. Safeguard hardcopy records
The same practices for paper records apply to safeguarding your digital information. Know what records you have, what portion of your information is important, and put a protection plan in place. This may mean moving some records to a secure offsite location or photocopying and storing a copy of a document elsewhere. Better yet, consider scanning the document and saving the images to a cloud-based repository. Scanning provides an additional layer of protection while giving you faster access should you need to retrieve a record quickly in the event of an emergency.
