What you need to know about hurricanes and your business
With all of the devastation in recent months, none of us need to be reminded that hurricane season is upon us. Everyone is well aware of the tragic consequences of being ill-prepared for natural disasters. The number one priority in these situations is protecting loved ones and then doing what you can to protect your home. But what about your business? The number one item you need to protect is your important data. It’s something you can do well in advance of any crisis situation. If you don’t, the consequence can be serious:
1. Best case scenario: your business itself and important data are safe, but you’re not able to get to your building and retrieve your data in a timely manner. It still means it could take days or weeks or even months to get things up and running again.
2. Even minor damage to your office could weaken security measures, making your data susceptible to theft. It seems disasters bring out both the best and worst in humanity. Vandalism and theft are not uncommon after tragedy. Your data survived the storm but they may not survive what happens afterwards.
3. Your data is not destroyed, but is damaged. Your data may not have been incinerated or swept away in floods, but they’re definitely not in tip-top shape. High temperatures and humidity can wreak havoc on computer equipment, optical disks, audio and video recordings, and microfiche and microfilm.
4. Worst case scenario: your data is destroyed. It is more likely than you think. Your office may not be built to resist high winds, flooding, fire or any other natural disaster. Without even the minimum necessity of backup power, fire suppressions systems may fail. Imagining all of your business data going up in flames or sinking away is not a pretty picture.
There’s no way to prevent natural disasters, but there is one simple way to prevent the consequences of them on your business data. Stevens & Stevens Business Records Management will work hand in hand with you to determine the best ways to protect your critical data.
For example, at Stevens & Stevens, our facility construction is designed to withstand wind speeds of up to 150 mph, and our media vaults have temperature and humidity controls. We offer 24/7 access to your data and our facilities have fully redundant backup power, designed to maintain integrity even in the event of a natural disaster.
When disaster strikes, and critical data is properly stored and managed, you’ll have one less thing to worry about and you can concentrate on making sure your families and friends are safe. Then you can get back to business knowing your records are ready for you.
