Get through, 2

A few days ago, I wrote about using social media in an emergency, and I offered some tips. I’ll be coming back to that topic later this week, but today wanted to mention something I didn’t think of before: Tech preparedness.

Tonight’s TVNZ Close Up had a segment called “Getting back to business” (overseas readers, I don’t know if this is watchable outside New Zealand; I also don’t know how long TVNZ keeps clips available). The segment was about Christchurch business owners desperate to get into the cordoned-off area to retrieve computers and records so they can set up business somewhere else, or, at least, to prepare to.

No business owner should be in that position.

I can’t think of a single business these days that doesn’t use computers for at least part of its functioning: Accounting, email, customer relationship management, etc., etc. So for most businesses, a disaster recovery plan is simply not optional.

There are many ways to prepare. I once worked for a company that had me put files onto an Iomega Jaz cartridge and take them home with me so there was an offsite back-up (nowadays, one would use DVDs for a similar method).

But the smarter option is to use a back-up service over the Internet. There are plenty available, but I don’t want talk about specific companies because I haven’t evaluated them. Still, there are companies here in New Zealand and overseas.

These systems create incremental back-ups, like Time Machine on the Macintosh, except that instead of storing the back-up files on your own computers and hard disks, it stores them in a secure data facility somewhere else. The advantage of storing files in this way is that, being Internet-based, they’re accessible from anywhere in the world. As long as the back-up company is in a completely different region of the country (or world) than the business, the business will be protected, since it’s very unlikely a total disaster will strike them both at the same time.

So, a Christchurch company that used such a service could temporarily move anywhere there’s a broadband connection, get their back-up files and get set-up again, even without access to their place of business or their normal computers. If they were able to do that, the existence of the cordon wouldn’t matter.

I’m certainly not taking shots at the Christchurch businesses portrayed in the Close Up segment; for all I know they had a disaster strategy that didn’t work for some reason. Close Up’s point wasn’t actually about the businesses, but instead a point-scoring exercise on how bureaucracy was preventing the businesses from getting back on their feet.

I think this story should serve as a warning for every business to be prepared for disaster, ideally though an Internet-based back-up strategy. Such a system is good for home users, too, who can back up all their digital photos and music, for example.

This is just one more way to get ready to get through.