Close
  • Latest News
  • Cybersecurity
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Mobile
  • Networking
  • Storage
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
Read Down
Sign in
Close
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Read Down
Password recovery
Recover your password
Close
Search
Menu
Search
  • Latest News
  • Cybersecurity
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Mobile
  • Networking
  • Storage
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
More
    Home IT Management
    • IT Management

    Hurricane Sandy’s Effects on IT Operations to Ripple Across Nation

    By
    Wayne Rash
    -
    October 29, 2012
    Share
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Linkedin

      Lower Manhattan has already been evacuated. Cities along the East Coast of the U.S. are being shut down, and employees are being told to stay home. Meanwhile, the slowly, but steadily approaching Hurricane Sandy massive storm has been bringing heavy rain and high winds to the heavily populated Northeast Corridor since Sunday.

      The storm is destined to impact a swath of territory more than a thousand miles wide. Within Hurricane Sandy’s impact area, millions of people and businesses will lose power. So will communications networks, wireless services, phone companies and in some cases, government agencies.

      Right now a glance at Hurricane Sandy’s track can be deceiving. That track traced on all the maps doesn’t tell the full story. That’s simply the potential path for the center of the storm. The effects will spread far beyond that relatively small area.

      If your company is located in the area that the hurricane will affect, you may still have time to do some last-minute things to get ready. If you’re outside the area, you can pat yourself for making wise geographical choices this time. But you may still feel the effects.

      First the things you can do now. Make sure your employees are briefed on your company’s emergency plans and on what you expect them to do during and after the storm. Make sure you have current cell phone and landline phone numbers. If you have employees who absolutely must be at the work site, find a way to get them to work, and make sure you have a way to take care of their families. You won’t have effective workers if they’re worried about their loved ones.

      Next, make sure you test your emergency backups. If you have alternate networks, then test them. Since we’ve had a lot of warning leading up to this storm, you should have already tested your backup generators, but if you haven’t, do it now while you still have power. While you’re at it, check your fuel levels.

      Meanwhile, if you have an off-site backup service, confirm that they have a presence outside of the Northeast U.S., and start backing up your critical data if you haven’t already done this. If you don’t have an off-site backup service, this is the time to either set up a service or figure out what you’re going to do with your critical data. Maybe you can find a bank vault on higher ground.

      Hurricane Sandy’s Effects on IT Operations to Ripple Across Nation

      Once you’re taken care of your data, determine the likelihood that your data center will be adversely affected. If you’re on a high floor of a substantial building, and you don’t have exterior windows, the chances are pretty good that your data center won’t be destroyed.

      If your data center is in the basement, figure out whether it’s possible to turn off and move your critical servers, storage and infrastructure to a higher level. If it’s not, start making plans to buy new data center equipment and to restore your data from your offsite backup.

      For many companies directly in the storm’s path, the issue isn’t whether their data center will be affected, it’s how badly. You might just lose power or communications. But it might be worse.

      But suppose you’re not located in the Mid-Atlantic or the Northeast? You’re probably safe from having your data center taken out (unless some other freak weather event comes along), but you may need to take action anyway. Does your business depend on data centers or cloud services with locations near the U.S. east coast? Even if your cloud services provider has other locations, you need to make sure that your data isn’t located in the area at risk. If it is, now’s the time to get your cloud provider to move your data to another data center.

      The other factor that may affect your operations are your own networks. If you depend on the Internet to access data or for customers to access your websites or your data, be aware that a large portion of the network traffic in the U.S. passes through major network hubs in the eastern US. While these network centers are well protected against failure, that doesn’t mean that the networks they feed are equally well connected. You could find major network outages during and after the storm.

      Fortunately the Internet was conceived and built to bypass damage even if it’s extensive. But the chances are good that if this happens, you’ll be routed on slower more complex routes. This could make access slower and could impact on your customers. Make sure you’re aware if the storm is affecting your network performance. You may want to warn your customers, other offices or business partners that this is happening.

      Finally, whether you’re in the affected area or simply watching from afar, Hurricane Sandy can be a great lesson. First, it explains the necessity of geographical diversity when it comes to looking for cloud or co-location services. In this case New York and Philadelphia may not be far enough apart. Second, Sandy demonstrates the necessity of backup power and offsite data backup as well as the necessity of testing both of them regularly. Finally, this event will demonstrate that a catastrophe can happen anywhere, even where you are. You can’t afford to ignore the possibility.

      Avatar
      Wayne Rash
      Wayne Rash is a freelance writer and editor with a 35 year history covering technology. He’s a frequent speaker on business, technology issues and enterprise computing. He covers Washington and is Senior Columnist for eWEEK. He is the author of five books, including his most recent, "Politics on the Nets". Rash is a former Executive Editor of eWEEK and Ziff Davis Enterprise, and a former analyst in the eWEEK Test Center. He was also an analyst in the InfoWorld Test Center, and Editor of InternetWeek. He's a retired naval officer, a former principal at American Management Systems and a long-time columnist for Byte Magazine.

      MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

      Android

      Samsung Galaxy XCover Pro: Durability for Tough...

      Chris Preimesberger - December 5, 2020 0
      Have you ever dropped your phone, winced and felt the pain as it hit the sidewalk? Either the screen splintered like a windshield being...
      Read more
      Cloud

      Why Data Security Will Face Even Harsher...

      Chris Preimesberger - December 1, 2020 0
      Who would know more about details of the hacking process than an actual former career hacker? And who wants to understand all they can...
      Read more
      Cybersecurity

      How Veritas Is Shining a Light Into...

      eWEEK EDITORS - September 25, 2020 0
      Protecting data has always been one of the most important tasks in all of IT, yet as more companies become data companies at the...
      Read more
      Big Data and Analytics

      How NVIDIA A100 Station Brings Data Center...

      Zeus Kerravala - November 18, 2020 0
      There’s little debate that graphics processor unit manufacturer NVIDIA is the de facto standard when it comes to providing silicon to power machine learning...
      Read more
      Apple

      Why iPhone 12 Pro Makes Sense for...

      Wayne Rash - November 26, 2020 0
      If you’ve been watching the Apple commercials for the past three weeks, you already know what the company thinks will happen if you buy...
      Read more
      eWeek


      Contact Us | About | Sitemap

      Facebook
      Linkedin
      RSS
      Twitter
      Youtube

      Property of TechnologyAdvice.
      Terms of Service | Privacy Notice | Advertise | California - Do Not Sell My Information

      © 2021 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

      Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.

      ×