Tsunamis, earthquakes, hurricanes, floods—Mother Nature is making headlines every week. Did you know that according to the Institute for Business and Home Safety, based in Tampa, FL, at least 25 percent of businesses close after a natural disaster and never reopen?

It’s not just a major weather catastrophe that can seriously impact your business. Even a loss of electricity (the transformer down the street “suddenly” stops working) or the data pipeline to your office is accidentally cut. Even minimal outages that shut down your phone systems or keep you from processing orders for a day or more can lead to incalculable lost revenue. And we won’t even talk about the impact of losing company data, which can happen for any number of reasons, natural or otherwise. So, when it comes to protecting your critical information, it’s best to take a piece of advice from the Boy Scouts: Be prepared!

Connected People, First and Foremost

Of course, in the event of a natural or national disaster, your first priority is to make sure you have a plan in place to keep your colleagues safe. Once you know you have a plan for your people, the next most important priority is to ensure that you have the ability to communicate with them.

Have a documented phone tree and lists of alternate phone numbers and email addresses so employees can pass along vital information to one another. Even though we’re all about the paperless office, go “old school” with these lists and print paper copies, too. While you hope you’ll have access to computers and phones, having a paper copy is important, too. Don’t forget social media tools like Facebook or Twitter which can get information out to many people quickly.

While it may seem like a “no-brainer,” remind your colleagues to keep their cell phones charged. Having extra batteries and car-chargers in stock are great ways to make sure phone communication stays open.

Backup Now, Recover Later

Of course, you’re worried about your business records. Are your servers backed up? Are your sure? Off-premises or cloud-computer servers are the best way to make sure your vital records and emails are safe in case of fire or some other disaster that results in the destruction of your building. You might also consider a cloud-based or virtual PBX system that can be used to route calls to different phones and store voicemail messages.

In the past, off-site or virtual data storage was something only the largest corporations with huge IT budgets could afford. But Network Alliance’s Desktop as a Service is a “virtual IT Department” that brings this protection (and more) to your business at an affordable price. Our professionals can also help you develop disaster recovery strategies that meet your special needs.

Don’t Wait for Disaster

You already know managing your data encompasses more than being prepared for a disaster. Where and how to store all of your data is an ongoing operational problem that just gets bigger and bigger (the amount of data and the problem). Buying more storage on your own can be complex and costly, and the bigger your data center, the more vulnerable you actually become. As cloud-computing experts, Network Alliance provides you with IT infrastructure “as a service” and disaster recovery “as a service” as well. For a low monthly fee with no capital investment, you get full administrative management over your data center, full backup and recovery of all end-user desktop data in the event of a disaster, and the ability for your employees to work from any location. Now that’s prepared!