During hurricane season, businesses in risky areas deal with the issue of protecting their assets and digital infrastructure. Even though you can’t manipulate weather patterns, you still have the ability to create safety measures for your business’s network and POS equipment in case of hurricane damage. Prepare your business for a storm in advance to help you greatly reduce the probability of data loss, hardware damage, and an extended period of downtime. These are some methods for securing your business’s operations against hurricanes.
Backup Your Data: The First Line of Defense
Data is the fundamental asset of modern business operations. Serious problems may come from insufficient access to business financials, proprietary business data, or customer information. The first thing you should do to get ready for a hurricane is to check that your data backups are both recent and safe.
Why Cloud Backups are so Important
Depending only on local backups located on-site is not adequate. In the case of a hurricane, physical backup devices could be wrecked by flooding, fire, or theft. As a result, it’s important to take advantage of offsite backups. Most cloud backup services provide a robust level of protection by having your data stored in secure remote facilities. Also, these services generally have scheduled automated backups that ensure your data is current, and they allow for quick recovery, therefore reducing downtime after a storm.
Pro Tip: You should regularly confirm that your backups can indeed restore successfully. A backup is helpful only if it is functional when you need it to be.
Protect Your Hardware: Physical Safeguards
While it’s important to protect data, don’t forget the necessity of protecting your physical hardware. Flooding, wind, and water damage caused by a hurricane can create pandemonium for your POS, computers, and networking technology.
Ways to Protect Your Equipment
Before the storm hits, take the following precautions to protect your hardware:
- Power Down: Turn off your card readers, POS, computer, server, and every networking device.
- Unplug Everything: Disconnect all devices from electricity to stop electrical damage from either power surges or flooding.
- Elevate Equipment: Position your hardware on raised surfaces to help lower the danger of flood damage.
- Cover with Plastic: Use plastic coverings to defend equipment from both water and debris.
Remember: Should your equipment become wet, do not try to power it on again until a professional has checked it. This step can defend you from causing lasting problems with your devices.
Continue Business with Internet Failover
When a hurricane is happening, you can expect to experience outages in your internet service. For companies that count on internet connectivity to handle payments, communicate, or use cloud services, a blackout in internet connectivity can be a serious issue. However, there is a solution: setting up an internet failover system.
What Is Internet Failover?
Should your main internet service provider (ISP) malfunction, a backup internet connection called internet failover will kick in automatically. This may mean a secondary Internet Service Provider, a cellular data link, or even an internet network that operates through satellites. You can keep your company’s important functions—payment processing, email communications, and cloud application access—running in case of an internet interruption thanks to a failover system.
Benefits of Internet Failover:
- Uninterrupted Payment Processing: Continue to allow credit card payments and keep your point-of-sale systems up and running, even if your main ISP goes down.
- Sustained Communications: Keep your email, VoIP, and messaging systems running properly to maintain communication among staff, vendors, and buyers.
- Access to Cloud Services: Keep backup access to the cloud, applications, and your data to make sure your business runs smoothly.
Pro Tip: Set up your internet failover to change over to the backup connection without human involvement, so your business suffers little to no disturbance.
Other Essential Preparations
In addition to backups, hardware protection, and internet failover, there are more steps you can take to ensure your business is entirely ready for a hurricane.
Create a Contact List
Bring together a listing that covers every emergency contact, which includes every employee, every supplier, and every IT assistance provider. The list needs to include phone numbers, email addresses, in addition to backup methods for contact if the major ones are not available. Share this list with important staff members so that everyone understands how to connect during and following the hurricane.
Notate Your Technology Resources
Prepare an extensive reference document outlining all technology assets, which comprises POS equipment, computers, servers, networking hardware, and the software licenses. Having a duplicate of this inventory either electronically or as a hard copy together with your backups allows for easy access if your equipment is damaged or goes missing.
Tip: Include in your list serial numbers, the dates you purchased, and warranty information. This information will prove useful if you have to file insurance claims.
The Importance of Preparing in Advance
Hurricanes can be unpredictable, but your reaction to them can be planned out. Taking these steps ahead of time can help you drastically reduce the consequences of a hurricane for your business. The objective is twofold: to defend your assets and to be able to restart your operations promptly after the storm has passed.
Fast Recovery Corresponds to Business Continuity
The quicker you recover, the fewer interruptions your business will experience. Having backups available, taking care of your hardware, deploying internet failover, and keeping your inventory and contact list updated enable your business to quickly recover. This kind of readiness both maintains your business’s profits and ensures a strong relationship with clients who depend on what you offer.
When getting ready for hurricanes, it’s important to go beyond shielding your windows and safeguarding your physical holdings; you must also safeguard the digital infrastructure of your business. By embracing these tips, you can achieve a level of hurricane resistance for your business that will protect both your hardware and data from the worst that the storm can bring.
We Can Help Prepare Your Business for a Storm
Don’t wait for a hurricane to be imminent. Today is the day to review your existing disaster recovery plan; if you require help, reach out to Card Systems, Inc. to find out more about our secure backup, internet failover, and hardware protection solutions designed for your business.
