Has this scenario ever happened in your office? You arrive at work, ready to face the day. You turn on your computer and wait for the welcome screen. Nothing happens. You turn it off and on again, thinking it may be a simple glitch. Nope, the computer is dead. You have lost everything, from your pictures to your important work documents. What are you going to do in this situation? What if something were to happen not just to one computer, but also to your business's entire data center? Would you be prepared?

If you have not thought about backup and data recovery options, you are sitting on a ticking time bomb. It takes just one electrical storm or spilled cup of coffee to cause you to lose everything in your computer. On a grander scale, your business's entire data center could theoretically be destroyed in a disaster. Are you prepared?

Create a Disaster Recovery Plan

You must plan for possible disasters. You need a disaster recovery plan. It must cover everything your business will do in the event of a data disaster, pinpoint possible disasters, and specify which people will perform which tasks if the plan is going to be put into effect. Once you have the plan in place, make sure all personnel know it and have a copy. Store a copy offsite as well, in case of a massive disaster that destroys your entire office building.

Create a Good Backup

If you are going to recover from a disaster, you must have a backup to get the data from. Regularly make copies of the important data on your computers, and store it somewhere off site. You will have to decide how often these backups are made, but make sure they happen regularly enough to provide you with a good starting place if you should need to rebuild your data center.

For a business creating a disaster recovery plan, backup sites are also important. These are actual locations you can use to being rebuilding your data center. The backup site could be stocked with hardware and software, or it could simply be an office that you would stock if the need arose. Your budget will dictate how extensive your backup site will be, but you need to have one as part of your disaster recovery plan.

If a disaster occurs, you will need to be able to find the last backup you made of your data. While it may not contain everything, it will have the most up to date information possible. Before you begin rebuilding, make a copy of the backup and have it stored somewhere other than the location where you are working.

Consider Hiring Help

Perhaps you are overwhelmed with the task of creating a data disaster recovery plan and making sufficient backups of your information. If so, consider hiring a company to help you create an implement your disaster recovery plan. The expense will be worthwhile, because in the end you will have the peace of mind that comes with having a plan in place to deal with the unexpected. Hopefully you will never need your disaster recovery plan, but if you do, it will be an invaluable addition to your business.