Anyone who has lived in Butte or Tehama County knows the drill: smoke, evacuation warnings, and utility shutoffs when the wind picks up. Your IT should be ready for the same things your family is. The good news is that most of the preparation is simple.
Keep your data out of the building
- Make sure your data is backed up off-site or in the cloud, not only to a drive in the same office.
- Move email, files and accounting to cloud services if you have not already. Then work resumes from anywhere with a laptop.
- Know where your software license keys and account logins are stored, in a password manager rather than on a sticky note.
Be able to work from somewhere else
- Laptops rather than desktops for key staff, so the office can leave with them.
- Multi-factor authentication set up on phones that will travel with you.
- A way to forward the business phone number to a mobile.
- A short list of who to call, on paper and on every phone.
Survive a planned power shutoff
- A battery backup (UPS) on the server, network gear and internet router, so equipment shuts down cleanly rather than crashing.
- Know how long the batteries last and who is responsible for shutting things down.
- Consider a phone hotspot as a backup internet connection when the cable or fiber goes down.
Write it down
A one-page plan beats a perfect plan nobody has seen. List the five things the business needs to operate, where each one lives, and who restores it. Print it and keep a copy off-site.
We help local businesses build exactly this kind of plan, and test it. If you would like a checklist reviewed against your own setup, call us.