Winter Prepping: Disaster Recovery & Energy Management
The snow has already begun falling, and it won’t be slowing down for a few more months. Those first few snowflakes are beautiful, but they can turn to dangerous very, very quickly. When the snowfall becomes to heavy or the roads too icy, the New Jersey government will often declare a “snow day.” While these are really for the safety of everyone involved, experiencing too many closings during the colder months can have a truly damaging effect on a manufacturer. That’s exactly why every manufacturer should have a disaster recovery plan.
A disaster recovery plan is a strategy put in place for a business to cope with any unforeseen disasters. Really, this covers any disasters a business might face, from hurricanes to tornadoes to everything in between, but during the winter this most often comes in the form of snowstorms. Snow can be a tricky thing for a manufacturer, as it can lead to power outages and occasionally even total power loss, but there are some aspects of the supply chain that need to continue running in order to stay efficient.
Oftentimes, the problem with losing power is losing access to the business’ computers. Many small manufacturers will have a handful of computers at their access to accomplish various tasks, but not every business takes the time to link all of their different Computer Processing Units (CPUs) together. Even more concerning, many businesses often don’t think to back up their hard drives, which can become catastrophic if there is any damage to the original computers.
These are relatively simple problems to fix—before they actually become disasters. NJMEP offers analyses of manufacturers’ current disaster recovery plans as well as suggestions for reducing risks for any future disasters.
For example, a good start for any manufacturer is to set up a server for the business computers, which will act as a backup hard drive as well as storage for any files that need to be shared amongst the different computers. This will save a lot of space on the individual computers and cut down on energy costs over time.
For more information about what NJMEP has to offer with disaster recovery planning, or for any additional questions, click below!