Hurricane Season is Here
Well today is June 1st and there are clouds on the horizon here in FL. 80% chance for rain tonight (thank God) and I think we'll have at least two hurricanes hit us this year. The numbers of named storms are pretty big this year.
I wonder how many companies here in FL actually did something after the 2004 hurricane season? We had four hurricanes hit Polk county that year and I was without power for a total of 21 days. Did that spark companies to at least do some sort of business impact analysis? Do most companies know what their data and information is worth? I would venture to say no. With tight budgets and even tighter work pools, they just didn't have time or see the value in doing the exercise.
Well I hope everyone fairs okay this season and no storms hit the mainland U.S. Take care and as the annoying weather people say here in FL, "hunker down."
June 2nd, 2007 at 2:56 am
I think most people in Australia would be happy to deal with large storms as they bring rain which is in very short supply here.More often than not, fire is the main issue here. I know of a major government department that had to shut down its primary data center because a huge fire was just about on top of the building. What they did not think about was the ash that got into the data center. It took them a long time to remove it. Fire also causes issues with water for air conditioning and black outs. A couple of years ago, a large telco had a problem with a fire sprinkler in its data center. It went off for no apparent reason and that cost an awful lot of money.Auckland which is the main business area in New Zealand had major power issues for weeks if not months a few years ago. I don’t know what caused it but business were pretty upset ago it.At one place where I worked, a hot water pipe burst over our UPS which was located in the same level as my major systems. The water was lapping on the bottom of the raised floor which was quite exciting. So it just goes to show that there are many reasons to invest in disaster recovery/business continuity. But so far, most companies are still thinking about IT and not people. If the Bird Flu ever does takes off, there will be no people at work to use the IT infrastructure. It will make hurricanes or the ice storm in Canada look like a picnic in the park and I don’t mean that disrespectfully.Stephen