Aftermath, After Thought of 14 Days

Irene is well on her way and we can put another close one up on the shelf. This hurricane got me thinking. I am thinking back to my sophomore year in high school, September 9th 1989. A small storm was starting off the Cape Verde Islands, a small set of islands on the western shores of Africa. Who knew in 13 days we would be in the ride of a life time. Over the next few days we all watched the storm grow in power, they called it Hugo. After watching the weather channel my family and I decided to evacuate. Well mostly my family decided. I like to think I had a say, but my mom was totally old school, kids are to listen and not speak when adults are talking. I remember my mom telling me that we needed to get my grandmother and us out of Charleston. We packed up the car and got on the road. Now let me tell you a bit about my moms driving... She drove with two feet, one foot on the gas and one foot on the break. She always rode the break so you never knew if she was stopping or going. She avoided the interstate at all cost. She hated to drive. I say this only because her driving scared me! You know I was a teenager and I knew everything and just knew we were going to get killed driving on the interstate! Luckily her boyfriend, Preston, drove us all. What a relief! We drove into Statesville, NC and got a hotel room and hung out to wait the storm out. Most of the hotels were full and had not power. On September 22, 1989 it hit Charleston as a Category 4 hurricane.
It rocked our little southern city. Isle of Palms got hit the worst. Houses came off their stilts and just sat in the middle of the street. Boats stacked up on top of each other in the middle of the streets. I have to tell you it was one of the sadist days when we got back to Charleston. The damage that we saw when we got back was just indescribable. I remember trying to get home through the mess was quite a chore as well. Many of the roads were blocked by down trees and power lines The water was contaminated from the pine tree sap of all the trees that had fallen in to the water system. Schools were closed; mind you I was not upset about that! We came home to a very quiet neighborhood. We lived in North Charleston; there were not too many trees around our house. No damage to the house. One of our neighbors had a tree through their roof. We were lucky. Other than the lack of power and water we were all ok.
I am an Eagle Scout, an avid camper and love to cook outdoors. We had to eat and I was not going to be stuck with eating all things from a box. So I pulled out my trusty Coleman camp stove filled it with gas and set it on top of the electric stove. Gave it a few good pumps and started cooking. We had lots of food that was going to go bad in the refrigerator and freezer so we had to cook it. We ate really well since we had to cook all the food. I have to say I really enjoyed those two weeks. My inner boy scout really came out. After a few days, my Uncle Mike came down, from New Jersey, to bring us an old broken refrigerator filled with meat and dry ice! It kept us going for the next week. We did not have the money for a generator; and at the time, people were price gouging these things like they were gold. Some came from out of state to sell them on the side of the road. Later the police got word from the news and started shutting them down. We just decided to play MacGyver. We grabbed a battery from the car and an old headlight from the car and that was our lantern at night. We would charge the battery in the day time and use it at night. We did that for 14 days. We had a battery powered TV and radio that kept us informed. The internet really was not something that everyone used so it was not missed at all. Mostly a dial up connection to old bulletin board servers, you had to be a real GEEK to have one of those then. Cell phones were not really available either. It took a long time for many of the area businesses to get back and running. The grocery stores opened up first. Many of them had no power. I remember seeing lots of semi-trucks with long lines for ice, food and water. It was quite an experience I have to say.
While looking back on that experience this weekend I try and think what it would have been like if it hit today. A lot has happened in 22 years. We now have cell phones, the internet and phone services through the internet. How many of us have an analog phone or radio in our home anymore? If we had a huge hurricane or earthquake hit Charleston imagine the cell towers being down and the internet being offline for 14 days. If you dont have power or a cell phone how are you going to talk with people or know what is going on? Do you have a HAM radio or CB? We as a country DEPEND on the INTERNET and it being available to use. Just think if I took your cell phone, computer and internet connection away from you for 14 days. Do you have what you need to stay in touch or know what is going on? Its not the end of the world. But 22 years, can make people forget what it was like. Technology is a very dangerous thing. It helps us so much that at times we forget what it was like without it.
I am sharing this with you all in an effort for you to think about it. How would you survive for 14 days? Would your business survive? What do you do that depends on the internet? Does your job or company depend on you being on the internet? Just stop for a moment and think about it.

Argggg.. Business Owners and their DATA!

Ok, so, I am going to go on a rant about small business owners and their lack of concern for their data. Let me first start off and tell you, I am a small business owner myself, but I think after reading my rant you should ask yourself one of two questions. Is this my boss, or is this me? If it is neither, then you are doing well.

Let me paint the visual image for you: You come in from a long day at the office and eat a really great meal, and then you decide to meet some friends for some drinks. You go out and have a great night and after a while, you come home and hit the bed to get some sleep so you can get to work tomorrow at a reasonable time. Tomorrow is just a normal day at the office, nothing really special.

You wake up at 3:00 AM from your cell phone ringing. It is a call from your alarm monitoring service. They said that your burglar alarm went off and they have dispatched the police department. Youre the one with the code, so you think maybe something is up. You get dressed and head into the office.

When you get there, you see 3 police cars still there and your front glass door is broken. Now your concern is a bit higher, right? I mean at first, I am sure you may have thought this was a false alarm or something. Well it wasnt. The cop said that it was a busy night and it took them about 20 minutes to respond to this break-in. You take a look around and the thief took some blank checks that were on your desk, all you computers and servers. They also took the mini-refrigerator out of your office. I am sure that your first concern is the six pack of beer in the refrigerator. No, actually you are thinking they just took some blank checks and all of my computers. What does this really mean? This means that they got away with all of your checks. Do you remember the last check number? Do you remember all the checks that were ordered? You have to call the bank and cancel all of those checks. Remember they took your computers and servers. Your accounting package is gone along with all your data. They took your customer data, your business data and some of your personal data. Oh wait; the insurance guy will get my stuff back for me right? NO. there is no customer data store to buy back your data. You cant get it back unless you have a GOOD backup. Hopefully it was offsite and you can restore it. If not then you will most likely be out of business in the next year, if not sooner. Do you trust your backup software is running every night? Do you check the reports? Do you check if there were any errors? Most business owners know how to read a P&L because their business depends on the profits. Why dont most business owners take the time to read a backup report? This report is just as important as your P&L. If you look at your P&L once a week or once a month then you should be looking at your backup logs with the same reverence. Do you have someone (that knows what they are doing) checking them for you?

I ask you again, how important is your companies data to you? How important is your business to you? How important is your job to you? Anyone reading this can take action by asking the right questions.

1) How often does my company backup our data?

2) If I lost all of my equipment, how quickly could I get my data back?

3) Do I know the process to restore my data?

4) Have I checked our backup logs lately to make sure that all the data needed is being backed up and if it was successful?

5) Have I tested a file restore lately to make sure I can restore my data?

6) Have I tested a full disaster lately to make sure I can restore ALL of my data?

Start with these questions and see if you know the answer to all of these. If you dont, then make sure you know who does. Then ask yourself, do you trust they will be there for you when you need to restore your business. Remember the insurance person is ONLY going to replace your equipment. They CANNOT replace the data.

Is your Business Prepared for a Disaster?

Batten down the hatches and nail down the door its going to be a rough one! Ok so I am being a bit dramatic but Hurricanes can cause some serious damage to your home and business. I was watching TV this weekend and saw on CNN that we have our first named storm. Alex is off the cost of Central America. Very close to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Hurricanes go boy, girl, boy, girl, etc.. Then ABCD right down the list. The next one on the list is Bonnie. I wonder how far down the list we go this year? Hopefully not too far. I hope none of them make landfall anywhere. But, ask yourself this, do you want to be the business owner that let Bonnie, Colin or Danielle ruin your business. I mean they are not even employees at your company.

What kind of damage can a hurricane do to your business well lets talk about the easy ones; physical damage, flooding or, even worse, death. Those are the ones that the insurance people really get their marketing dollars out for right? They scare you into buying. Well many times we dont think of the other issues likedisasters that strike that arent even in your area. Ask yourself this How would a hurricane or other disaster affect my vendors or customers? Lets take for example a clothing company in Summerville, SC that gets all of their fabric from a nice textile company in India. Well most of the time all of that gets shipped from overseas. The ports are very important to this company as this is how the fabric company gets their raw goods. What would happen if something happened to the ports or even worse to the company in India. Where would they get their raw materials from? I could go on and on about this. There are thousands of possible issues that go on. So how does a small business prepare themselves for a disaster of any kind? Well it all starts with planning. Here are a few quick tips on how to help you be more prepared.

1) Have a backup location to do business. If you know where you will setup shop when the disaster hits then it is one less thing to deal with.

2) Have the right insurance that will allow you to get set back up and going quickly.

3) Make sure your vendors have their own disaster recovery plan. You dont want them having a disaster be your disaster! Have backup vendors. If you cant then know the risk and try and protect yourself.

4) Backup your Data daily and test the backups monthly.

5) Write it all down. It sound simple enough but a one page document is much more effective place to start when you are in panic/task mode.

Remember the best way to survive a disaster is to plan, plan and plan. Then test, test and plan again when the tests fail. I truly hope that disaster never strikes you. But when it does knowing who to call and what to do will be your best allies in rising from the storm and being number one!

Are You Playing What If With Your Backup Recovery?

Have you ever played the What If game? What if your house caught fire? What would be the first nonliving thing you would grab? Majority of people will say their pictures. Pictures capture a moment in time that you will never get back. They capture emotions and tell stories of our lives that may not be remembered until you see the picture.

Now, lets play the What if game for your business. What is your most prized possession in your office? Is it the building? Nope, you have insurance. Your equipment? Nope, its insured too. Your employees? Nope, it is the middle of the night and everyone is at home sleeping. Is it your data? Probably so, because if you are like most, you dont have data insurance. You have never heard of data insurance? Data insurance is your Disaster Recovery.

So, what type of backup recovery are you using? A cd and hoping it didnt get scratched up in the fire, or the office managers purse, if it made it out of the office. A hard drive hoping it very carefully made it out of the office and back in working order. A tape backup, hoping that the last weeks worth of data is recoverable. (Tapes fail up to 70% of the time). Another question is, how long before you can actually get your business back on track? Minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, or sometimes longer. How quickly can you replace the server? What about all the software programs?

If you are second guessing your disaster preparedness, check out http://optix.onlinebackupsolution.com or http://optixdatavault.com.

Statistics show that after a major loss of computer records, 43% of businesses never reopened, 51% closed within two years, and a mere 6% survived long term.

You are probably still thinking this is all a what if situation, but it WILL be a reality before you know it. And it probably wont be a fire. It will most likely be a human error. I am not comfortable playing the what if game. I am not the owner of this company, but I know that if we lost our computers and servers, I would still have a job to come to, because our data is safe.

Is My Data Safe?

Todays businesses are surrounded by digital information. Between customer data and accounting data it is a wonder how businesses got along without computers years ago. They have certainly made the day to day operations simpler for many people. I must also admit they have caused much frustration too. But all in all, they have really become a necessity in the modern business. It is to this requirement that I ask many business owners about their companys data. Is your data backed up? Can you recover your data? Do you test your backups regularly? I sometimes get an annoyed answer back of Yes! I then usually ask the follow up question, Are you sure? At this point, I typically get a dumbfounded look. Some answer, Of course, I am! and others finally answer, I dont know.

Each and every business owner needs be able to answer yes to every one of these questions. Can you? If at this point, youre asking what a backup is, then you may not even have a computer. But for the millions of other businesses out there, what is your answer? I talk to so many people week after week asking if they have a Disaster Recovery plan for their companys data. They all usually tell me the same thing. Yes, we backup every night! or We use remote backup. When they give me this answer, I just shake my head and try and educate them on the question. See, I did not ask them if they backed up their data. I asked them if they have a disaster recovery plan for their network. Backing up data is not a disaster recovery plan. It is only one part of an entire solution. A disaster recovery plan for your data is like an insurance policy for your data. You have a policy to replace all of the equipment and materials in your business but nothing to replace the intellectual property and contact and hundreds of other Gigabytes of data you have stored on your desktop, laptops and servers. I really want to share this with the reader so that I might attempt to educate just one or two business owners that Backup is not Disaster Recovery. Disaster recovery is the ability to recover from a disaster. What does that really mean? It could mean a lot of different things to a lot of different companies. Here are just a few for you to ask yourself: How long will it take me to return to 100% production? How long will it take to restore my data? How long will it take for my phone to start ringing again? These are just a few of the questions you need to ask about what a disaster can do to your company. Have you thought about this in your business? If not, then get started right away! As an IT consultant, I think of the many bumps in my clients businesses. My goal is to prepare them for the worst case. I want to know that if my client drove up to work and all they saw was a smoking pile of dust we can still recover their business. After all the tears have passed and phone calls made, we need to get the client back in the drivers seat. How do you get in the drivers seat? That is what a disaster recovery plan is for.

Most disasters are not from Hurricanes or Earthquakes, but simple human error. The employee that left the door unlocked to a would be thief, the business above you that had a busted water pipe and drowned your servers or even the lighting strike that came through the phone lines that turned your server into a huge door stop. All of these things happen to businesses daily. It is just a matter of time when one of them will happen to you. So I ask again, do you have a disaster recovery plan? It does not have to be complicated. Ask yourself these questions

1. How often will I test & update my network disaster recovery plan?

2. Who will I call when my network disaster hits?

3. How will I recover my data?

4. How long should I expect to be down?

5. Will I be able to help my existing clients/customers during the recovery?

6. How much will it cost me to recover?

7. Who is responsible for my data backups?

8. Are my backups being stored in a safe location?

9. What is a reasonable acceptance of lost data?

10. See Step 1!

Kotori Technologies, LLC can help you with a good solution for your company. The first step is to realize that you need one. Once you do that then put into action what the most important part of your plan is and take the first step toward your disaster recovery planning.

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