Although not on par with the historic flooding in Nashville and throughout eastern Massachusetts earlier in the year, this article about last night’s water main break in Los Angeles served as a reminder that disasters,  both natural and of the man-made kind, can happen anywhere at any time. While flooding typically causes “only” temporary damage, it can still wreak havoc on your business. Floods can limit access to facilities, interrupt business processes, isolate staff and disrupt supply chains. And, now that digital data is the lifeline of virtually every company, it’s more important than ever to have an IT disaster recovery strategy in place. Is your company prepared in the event of a disaster?

Fortunately, today’s Cloud-based backup and recovery and disaster recovery services can be customized to fill in the gaps of your current DR strategy and help you meet recovery time objectives (RTOs) and recovery point objectives (RPOs) should a flood, or other disaster, strike. For instance, many small-to-medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are now finding it cost-effective to employ a hybrid Cloud-connected strategy that provides both on premise protection of systems and data for short- and intermediate-term needs and off-site protection in the Cloud for DR purposes.

Finding Clouds located outside of your geographical region can provide even greater protection – and that should be a primary consideration if your business places a high priority on business continuity in the event of a disaster. Obviously, flooding can’t be prevented or predicted in the case of the LA water main break. But a comprehensive IT DR plan that includes some level of off-site DR protection (Cloud-based or at a second data center) for critical systems and data can help significantly mitigate a site disaster’s impact on your business objectives.

For more information on DR planning, check out this Disaster Recovery Planning Guide for Beginners from SearchDisasterRecovery.com