About 2 weeks ago, our local area was subjected to a surprise overnight ice storm. Ice storms are never a good thing, but they're even worse when they're unexpected because you're not prepared. Usually, as a result, things are more heavily damaged than you'd prefer and power usually fluctuates or downright goes out. Such was the case with one of our clients who suffered a series of brownouts during the overnight which had the unfortunate effect of killing off their main office desktop.
Upon receiving the desktop the next morning with the message that it was not booting, we immediately diagnosed it as a failed hard disk. Normally, this would have been catastrophic as the disk not only contained many important business documents but also databases for a couple of line-of-business applications, which were are the lifeblood of any business. Losing all of this data would carry unimaginable costs.
Fortunately, a little over a year ago, we helped set up their ground-to-cloud backup system. We were able to use this backup to pull down all of their important data and put it back in place on a new disk with a fresh OS. By the end of the day, the customer had their system back in their office almost as if nothing had happened.
Having the proper disaster recovery solution in place is extremely important. It's also important to have the knowledge and know-how to get things up and working quickly when disaster does strike. When most people think about IT disasters, ice storms typically aren't at the top of the list but they're just one of many things which can cause issues. Having a team able to keep you prepared for the unexpected can be the difference between business-as-usual and crippling losses. Does your business have that?