With the possibility of major impacts from Hurricane Joaquin just days away, we wanted to remind our valued clients about the importance of extreme weather preparedness. Threats from extreme weather can cause a real disruption to small businesses. Research conducted by the American Sustainable Business Council has shown that small businesses are highly vulnerable yet a majority are not taking the proper steps to increase their preparedness.

Since many small businesses only have one location, an event that prevents customers, vendors and employees from accessing the building can result in significant lost business. Even more damaging, having centralized data can threaten a business’s security by temporary power loss, or worse, power spikes and flooding could lead to a complete loss of your customer information and any improperly backed up data.

Many coastal cities on the Eastern seaboard are preparing for storm surges and other impacts associated with rising sea levels and extreme weather. This calls for small businesses to plan ahead and make sure they are not vulnerable the next time extreme weather hits.

To stay afloat when extreme weather hits, we would recommend the following two actions:

1. Move your company’s data off site by using Microsoft’s 365 cloud platform. This will remove the need for any onsite server, reducing your vulnerability as well as your energy costs. Microsoft will back you and your customers’ data to their network of servers, allowing it to be out of harm’s way and allowing you access from anywhere.

2. Increase your extreme weather preparedness by guaranteeing access to the internet. Having more than one viable point of connection provides an alternative when extreme weather brings their main line of connection down.

We encourage you to use these major weather events as a reminder to be proactive when managing your IT needs. If you have any questions concerning safeguarding your network from extreme weather, please feel free to reach out to us by calling 617-269-0299 ext 1.