It’s Hurricane Preparedness Week, and while Boston-based Markley Group may not face the threat of hurricanes like other areas of the country do, it’s always a good reminder for organizations to revisit their disaster recovery plans so they can be prepared for the unpredictability of Mother Nature. During a natural disaster (or even a cybersecurity attack), an organization needs to ensure that its data is not only safe, but that it continues to be accessible to employees and customers regardless of where they might be working from.
While it’s easy to let disaster recovery plans fall to the backburner, having an effective disaster recovery initiative is critical to keeping your business running in adverse scenarios. Here’s our tips to keep your data and storage systems safe-and-sound when Mother Nature throws you a curve ball:
Pick the Right Data Center
While data centers are generally the safest and most secure location for IT equipment, not all data centers are created equal. First, consider location. While it may be tempting to select a disaster recovery site far away, proximity is key. For emergency purposes, you will want to be able to arrive at your disaster recovery site easily and quickly, so it shouldn’t be thousands of miles away from your primary site. That said, do take into consideration the extreme weather in your area and make sure the facility is able to face the wrath of Mother Nature. For example, in the South, you wouldn’t want to select a data center built in a flood plain area that is likely to be affected by extreme weather.
The distance from your primary site and disaster recovery site also greatly affects latency and performance of applications. With today’s data and network demands, latency is more important than ever to make sure you are satisfying your business goals, as well as your user expectations and requirements to get data from one place to the other. Time is of the essence.
Embrace the Cloud
Companies shouldn’t be afraid to incorporate cloud storage and computing into their disaster recovery plan, which is key in diversifying and limiting the exposure to any single location being hit by a natural disaster. Markley Group’s diversified storage locations across the region and country ensure our customers remain operational around the clock. So when committing to a third party service provider, ensure they have multiple locations and offer primary and backup solutions in multiple regions. By diversifying your storage solutions, your organization and data will be protected whatever Mother Nature throws at you.
What is your organization doing to ensure your data is safe and accessible, regardless of weather or natural disasters? At Markley Group, we are committed to providing various best-in-breed technology and service options for our customers. If you’re currently looking to upgrade your data center provider or cloud storage solutions to ensure your critical information is never out of reach, reach out to info@markleygroup.com and we’d be happy to help.
