don’t risk losing your data to mother nature.

Data has become essential to daily our life and business operations. Unfortunately, there are many dangers that threaten our data, and natural disasters are one of them. 

Natural disasters can cause destruction of physical IT infrastructure, such as servers and storage devices, and can result in sudden electrical surges or outages, leading to the loss of critical personal and business data.

The scientific community agrees that as global temperatures rise, natural disasters with extreme weather events will become more frequent.

• The U.S. experienced 18 extreme weather events in the last year, resulting in more than $165 billion in damage. This made 2022 the third-costliest year on record, according to a report released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - NOAA.

• This winter, the U.S. has been hit hard by devastating winter storms, with freezing temperatures, heavy snow, rain, winds, and flooding.

• Four of the worst California wildfires in history have occurred within the last six years.

• Four of the most extreme hurricane seasons in U.S. history have occurred within the last 15 years.

• Tornadoes, which were historically confined to the Midwest, are increasingly occurring on the East Coast, hitting places like New York City and Massachusetts.

• Researchers predict that as global temperatures rise, extreme weather events such as extreme temperatures, intense storms, flooding, and droughts will become more frequent or intense, potentially causing significant disruption.

examples of natural disasters.

hurricanes, tornadoes, blizzards, severe storms and flooding.

Flooding, hurricanes, tornadoes, blizzards, and severe storms are all examples of natural disasters that can severely damage or destroy hardware and cause significant damage to the data stored there. When a computer or server is flooded, water damage can compromise its hardware, leading to data loss. 

Flooding can also occur inside a building due to other issues, such as bursting water pipes or leaks. These can lead to electrical problems and outages, which can in turn cause fires and eventually data loss.

Some areas are more prone to certain types of storms than others. However, due to the changing weather patterns, it’s important to be prepared for these types of natural disasters no matter where you are located to help you mitigate the risk of data loss.

fire.

Fire is another type of natural disaster that can cause significant damage to data stored on computers and servers. 

Wildfires are caused by a combination of factors, including high temperatures, drought conditions, and triggers that can be natural (lightning) or human influenced (arson). Structural fires are often caused by electrical failure or malfunction. 

The damage from a fire can be much broader than just the direct flames. While smoke can also be destructive to IT infrastructure, water from sprinkler systems and fire hoses usually causes the most damage, leading to data loss.

earthquakes.

The most common cause of damage during an earthquake is ground shaking, as it can cause the collapse of buildings, roads and infrastructure.

Unlike the seasonal disasters, earthquakes have no preferred time of year and it is always earthquake season. We can, however, estimate their probabilities.

Although fault lines are most active on the West coast, you should be prepared no matter where you are located and have a backup plan in case your hard drives are destroyed in an unexpected earthquake.

how can you prevent data loss from natural disasters.

While you can't stop mother nature, it is crucial to be prepared for natural disasters. It is essential to take steps to protect your data and have the ability to quickly recover data to minimize the impact of data loss on your daily life and business operations. 

How can this be achieved?

back up your data.

First and foremost, it is important to routinely back up your data, so that in the event of a natural disaster, having a recent backup will allow you to retrieve your critical files. 

It is also recommended to test your backups periodically to ensure that they can be successfully restored in the event of an emergency.

replicate backups to the cloud.

Having a backup is just the first and essential step. It is also extremely important to consider, in the event of a natural disaster, how and where you store those backups. 

On-site backups can provide quick recovery in most cases, but they can be useless if a disaster destroys the entire building. 

The most effective way to prevent data loss from natural disaster is to store backups of your data in multiple locations, including cloud backup. 

Hybrid backup is a backup and disaster recovery strategy that backs up your data locally to any device you select, such as a computer hard drive or a server located in your office, as well as servers that are located off-site.

This type of backup in most cases allows for quick recovery of data from local backups. However, in the event of a disaster that destroys on-site infrastructure and makes local backups inaccessible, the off-site backups provide a failsafe. Hybrid backup is considered the most secure way to ensure you can recover data from the widest range of disaster scenarios. It is also a more expensive option as you need to buy hardware and software for local backups. However, this investment can be worth it for businesses to avoid data and revenue loss.

store geo-redundant cloud backups.

It’s important to keep backups in the cloud, but that alone is not enough to protect your data from the worst-case scenario.

For example, if your backups are stored in a data center located near your home or business and a natural disaster such as an earthquake strikes, causing damage to the entire region, all your backups may become inaccessible.

To safeguard your data, it is recommended to store off-site backups in two or more geographically diverse locations. This ensures that you will still be able to recover your data, even if the natural disaster has affected your entire region.

virtualize backups for faster access.

Virtualized backups store your backups as image-based files that can be booted as virtual machines. 

This is important in the event of a natural disaster that completely destroys your on-site infrastructure, as it allows you to quickly recover not only individual files, but your entire system, so you can get back to business.

Virtualizing your backups in the cloud also provides you with fast access to all your protected systems, software, and data, enabling you to spin up your backup in seconds from any location and continue using your critical applications.

set a shorter RPO.

RPO stands for recovery point objective and it is an important strategy for disaster recovery planning.

It refers to the maximum acceptable amount of data loss measured in time. A lower RPO means less data loss, as the recovery point will be more recent. For example, if an RPO of 12 hours is set, it means that the most recent backup should not be older than 12 hours. Thus, in case you need to restore the backup, the maximum data loss will be of 12 hours, which means you will only lose up to 12 hours’ worth of changes. However, 12 hours of data loss can be significant for businesses, hence it is important to set the RPO as low as possible, particularly for most critical data and systems.

 protect physical infrastructure.

Natural disasters are unique from other data-loss events because they can cause physical destruction.

It is recommended to have robust IT infrastructure and hardware that can withstand extreme weather conditions. 

An important strategy to prevent data loss from natural disasters is to deploy systems that safeguard on-site infrastructure from physical damage. This is particularly important for businesses.

To prevent fire damage, waterless fire suppression systems can be implemented.

Flood and moisture sensors are recommended, especially in lower levels of a building, to alert you in case of unexpected flooding.

Backup generators and power surge suppression systems can help prevent electrical damage to your hardware and ensure continuity of operations during power outages.

create a disaster recovery plan.

Businesses of all sizes generate and manage massive amounts of data, much of which is mission critical. Therefore, it is essential to have a disaster recovery plan (DRP) in place.

A DRP is a plan designed to assist businesses in responding to a disaster and protecting their IT infrastructure. It should include all preventative measures, data backup technologies, recovery objectives and protocols, as well as explain actions that must be taken before, during, and after a disaster.

Kotar Data Recovery has been providing exemplary data recovery services to individuals and businesses since 1999. Advanced and proprietary technology, highly trained data recovery experts and decades of experience, cumulatively enable them to recover time sensitive and mission-critical data from any device and any situation.