While we all hope events such as the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and the natural disaster of Hurricane Katrina do not ever happen again, the reality is that catastrophes, both natural and manmade, do happen from time to time in our lives.

This is the reality of the world in which we live, and it is always better to be prepared for disasters than to be sorry we were not.

As computers, and computer networks, have become more common place, even for small businesses, more and more electronic information is being generated each and every day around the world. These records are vital to your company's very existence, yet it is one of the most easily lost and damaged aspects of any business.

Electronic data can be damaged by the natural elements of fire, flood and earthquakes, by power fluctuations, by hardware and software failures, as well as by humans - both accidentally and purposely.

By creating a disaster recovery plan for your office, you can help to stave off the tragic effects of many, if not all, disasters which could befall your company. The first thing you should do is write down all of the electronic data sources your company has.

Do you have files on individual computers or is everything stored on servers? Is your company website hosted at your business location or elsewhere? The first step in securing your files is to know what you have and where it is currently located.

The next step is to evaluate how that data is currently being backed up. Do you have a technology employee who backs up your servers each night? Do you simply put in a CD and backup your own computer as you remember to do it? Do your employees have the responsibility of backing up their own PCs, and more importantly, are they doing it daily?

By determining your current backup situation, you can look to ways to improve upon it.

Next, you will want to look at your current offsite data backup procedure if you take advantage of this technology. Is there somewhere your business tape or CD backups are stored just in case there is some form of disaster at your location, and you need to restore to new PCs and file servers? Do you take the tapes home? Do you store them at another locations?

You should always have offsite data backup copies of your records as it is the only way to retrieve that information if a disaster happens at your building. And, just as important as storing your data offsite, is where exactly it is located at all times.

One of the best ways your company can deal with the issue of regular backups and storing offsite is to utilize the services of an online backup service company. By using an online backup service company, your computers and file servers can connect to their data center, via secure Internet connections, and copy all of your information there for safekeeping.

This ensures that no matter what happens at your current location, a copy of your business's electronic data is safe, secure, and available if you should ever need it.

If your business does not have a disaster recovery plan in place, please take the time today to formulate one and then begin to put your plan into action today.