Update your disaster recovery plan

With 2015 drawing to a close, experts are sizing up how the year fared with extreme weather conditions. As it turns out, 2014 was a record year for extreme weather across the globe, while 2015 has been turning out to be no different.

According to the “State of the Climate,” an annual report released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 2015 has seen record-breaking precipitation, heat and cold — just a few of the climate conditions that can wreak havoc on a data center. Some of those extreme weather events included 64.8 inches of snowfall in Boston and a tropical cyclone and flooding in South Carolina.

If you’re running a data center, these are the type of events that you should be prepared for — in case they lead to a downtime situation. But, obviously, the time to plan your recovery strategy is before an incident or disaster strikes.

To make sure you’re minimizing business losses in case of a disaster, here are some areas that you need to review or update as part of your disaster recovery plan, according to the Data Center Journal:

1. Determine the cost. If your business has experienced growth since you last reviewed your disaster recovery plan, it’s time for an update. A solid plan should take into account what is required to get back to service as quickly as possible, as well as the expenses involved with different disaster recovery scenarios.

2. Look beyond nature. With cyberattacks increasing, your threats have expanded beyond acts of nature like floods and earthquakes. Factor in how malicious attacks can impact your systems and outline a plan for recovery.

3. Identify your key people. It happens in every business. People come and go. Some move up in the company. Make sure your plan reflects the key employees who can be critical to addressing issues with the data center in case of an emergency. Make sure all contact information is current, even if you are dealing with the same list of employees.

4. Retrain employees. Review your disaster recovery procedures to make sure instructions on what to do in the wake of an event still make sense. Once the plan is solid, remind employees of their roles. Consider it like a tornado drill. Everyone needs a reminder.

At Lifeline Data Centers, we’re committed to providing wholesale colocation solutions to help you protect your data. Find out how we can help you plan for emergencies and other events that threaten your business.

Other resources:

• Infographic: The 22 Data Center Compliance Acronyms You Need to Know
• White Paper: Why Data Center Compartmentalization is Important
• Lifeline One Sheet: What You Need to Know About Lifeline Data Centers

Alex Carroll

Managing Member at Lifeline Data Centers

Alex, co-owner, is responsible for all real estate, construction and mission critical facilities: hardened buildings, power systems, cooling systems, fire suppression, and environmentals. Alex also manages relationships with the telecommunications providers and has an extensive background in IT infrastructure support, database administration and software design and development. Alex architected Lifeline’s proprietary GRCA system and is hands-on every day in the data center.