Hurricane season and record-setting drought pose risks to your company's IT

Aug. 8, 2011 - PRLog -- Rain or not, this may be the calm before the storm. Now’s the time to shelter your business from the extremes, says John Hill.

It’s an urgent message for your readers/viewers. With the start of August, the most active days of hurricane season have arrived.

Whether a tropical storm fails to deliver quenching rain to drought-stricken South Texas, or a full-blown hurricane forces its way onto land bringing wind, water and ruin, both can spell disaster for a business.

Even a business with no brick-and-mortar has a lot to lose.

“Severe weather poses a tremendous threat to business continuity,” says Hill, TechSage Solutions president. “Imagine losing your business data, or access to your data, because of fire, power outages or flooding. How long could your business survive?”

Other questions business owners should consider:
•   Have you determined and documented an acceptable risk level?
•   Do you have a contingency plan to overcome the risks?
•   Does your organization have the proper insurance to cover the risk?

The answers are different for every business, of course, but there are simple ways to not only safeguard your data, but minimize the tremendous exposure such catastrophes can bring. Hill advises starting with an inventory of hardware, software license keys and other equipment.

In the last year, more than 9,000 fires have burned 2.2 million acres across Texas alone, damaging at least 400 homes. With no rain in the foreseeable future, the risk of wildfires remains high. Rain could come from tropical storms and hurricanes in the Gulf, but at what cost?

Hurricanes bring flooding, tornadoes and a whole host of other problems: Loss of power, loss of online access, equipment failure, fire and theft. Even before hurricane season kicked off June 1, this year, several mammoth tornadoes in the Midwest wiped out communities and the businesses that sustain them.

“Most businesses these days should have a server to store their data because it’s a lot easier to protect and find that data when it’s centrally located rather than distributed in computers around the office,” says Hill. “A lot of people ask me about the ‘cloud,’ and other new technologies, but there isn’t an individual ultimate solution that covers everything. A hybrid approach is currently the best strategy.”

TechSage Solutions is an Information Technology Managed Services Provider, Microsoft Silver Partner and Value Added Reseller John Hill founded in San Antonio in 2000. TechSage has expanded in the last decade to include a variety of technology services, including designing, implementing and managing Information Technology projects and solutions.

Hill and his team also serve as managing member of SATC Co-Location Services, LP, a server co-location facility providing safe, secure hosting of servers for a wide variety of small- to medium-sized businesses.

John Hill is an experienced IT solutions specialist. He available for interviews at any time, and able to provide additional sources and local experts for complete coverage of this important topic.


CONTACT INFO: JOHN HILL
jhill@techsagesolutions.com
www.techsagesolutions.com