The 2022 hurricane season has officially started and the NOAA already released predictions calling the 2022 season “above normal’ with 14-21 named storms expected.
Of course, the first concern is keeping you and your family safe. The Red Cross has excellent resources on Hurricane and Tropical Storm preparedness. You can see those here.
There may come a time when you ask if your business is fully prepared.
[Get the guide: 25 Tips to Prepare Your IBM i for the Unexpected]
Here are some things to keep in mind:
The first question you have to ask yourself is “Do I have a full backup in case my machine or computer room is destroyed or damaged?”. This is probably the number one issue that I see in our industry today. Most businesses don’t have good backups that they can rely on.
If you are a regular reader of the iTech newsletter, you have probably heard me stress that you need to test your recovery and that it still holds out.
Take a moment to ask yourself:
- Am I 100% sure of my backups?
- Can I put the pieces of my backups together again?
- Do I know all the pieces of my backup and where they are stored?
- Do I know where my tapes are?
- Do I have someplace to recover?
If you have to pause a moment when going over those questions, we will go over some steps below to help. (Remember, the iTech Solutions team can help you get your machine restored, but if you don’t have a backup tape, there isn’t anything we are going to be able to do to restore your data.)
Your recovery will only be as good as your backup.
Once you have your backup, please take the backup tape off-site. If the whole area is being hit by the hurricane, then you can ship the tape to iTech Solutions (27 Mill Plain Rd. Suite 3, Danbury, CT 06811). Only put your tape in the mail if it is encrypted. Make sure you put your name on the tape. This is the second most important step to perform. Most likely if your machine is destroyed and the tape is inside the tape drive (Don’t laugh, I see this all the time), or the tape is on top of the computer, that tape will most likely also be destroyed. So, move that …
