Disaster Planning for Data Centers and Mission-Critical Environments
Stream Data Centers' facility at Houston-Woodland. (Photo: Stream Data Centers)
Whether it be an earthquake, tornado, cyberattack, or a black out, natural and man-made disasters can have a catastrophic impact on businesses, especially data centers where 100% uptime is expected. According to Stream Data Centers, “a fail-safe continuity plan can save the life of your business.”
To prepare for disaster, the paper recommends you first conduct a risk assessment to identify the biggest threats your organization could face. Look at recent disasters and how companies similar to your fared because “learning from others’ mistakes is much less painful than learning from your own.” The report goes on to say that “once you’ve identified your greatest threats, try to rate each event according to how likely it is to occur, how it would impact normal operations, the possible extent of disruption and damage, and the economic impact of the disaster.”