Computer Technical Support

• Hurricane: Wind
• Hurricane: Flood
• Theft
• Fire
• Tornado
• Earthquake

Create a disaster recovery plan for the most likely disasters at your site.

Ask, "What will I do if these are stolen or destroyed:

• Computers
• Backup tapes
• Customer records
• Printed invoices

If you keep archive copies of backup tapes off-site, you'll probably be able to recover from most disasters.

Where?

Store backups anywhere that's separated from your business site.  If you're on a flood plain, try to store archives in a secure site that's off the flood plain.

A bank safe deposit box would seem fine, but most banks don't guarantee safe deposit box environments. Some businesses have discovered that their archive tapes were unreadable after many months' storage in a safe deposit box. Before storing tapes in a safe deposit box, ask your bank.

Store your archive tapes far enough away so that when your site suffers a disaster, your archive tapes won't be destroyed by the same disaster.  Keep grandfather tapes thirty miles away and great-grandfather tapes a thousand miles away, just in case.

Decide if you need to encrypt your precious backup tapes. Most enterprises will require that their offsite data be encrypted. This imposes a requirement that the decryption password be safely secured yet available to key personnel when recovering from a disaster. I recommend that you thoroughly test beforehand to ensure that your encrypted tapes can be decrypted! 

• Secure existing site
• Open alternate site (if necessary)
• Fetch backup archives
• Restore power, water, and sewer
• Restore computers
• Restore telephones and fax
• Restore physical security
• Contact key customers and vendors

These people will form your disaster recovery team.

When a disaster occurs, someone will be sick or on vacation. Cross-train team members, so that, for example, the person who's in charge of telephone restoration can also fetch the tape archives, etc.

Publish, within the recovery team, a confidential directory of team members, with.

• Name
• Title
• Recovery responsibilities
• Street address
• Mailing address
• All phone numbers
• A friend or relative's contact data
• Email addresses
• Pager numbers

Do the same for all vendors: utility companies, landlords, municipalities, police, fire and rescue, hospitals, consultants, and contractors.

Publish your disaster recovery plan and directory:

• On paper
• On your intranet
• Via email

Keep this document up to date. Revise it as employees, vendors, and consultants change. Make sure all team members have the latest revision. 

FEMA's Emergency Management Guide for Business & Industry  

Disaster Recovery News