It’s not your imagination, and it’s not some creation of hyperactive news cycles. Weather-related disasters are on the rise around the globe, and that’s a fact. In 2013, there were 41 weather “events” around the world, which caused more than $1 billion in damages each, an all-time record.
This is why disaster recovery plans and systems have become such an emerging concern. Smart organizations know that its is prudent to protect their critical and operational data so that it can be easily retrieved in case disaster strikes, in order to maintain their organizational continuity.
Many organizations and businesses spend plenty of time and money to make sure their business information is not lost due to a weather-related crisis, or technical failure. But it is surprising how few make assurances that their most basic function – communicating with their stakeholders – will remain operational in the wake of an ice storm or a flood.
The Importance of Communications Can’t Be Overstated
Communications are never more important to an organization than they are during a time of crisis. You need to be able to communicate with everyone within the organization in order to coordinate your recovery. And you need to advise your customers, suppliers, partners and other stakeholders about the situation, what they should do, and when it can be righted.
We’ve become so reliant on the internet that it is easy to forget that its physical communications infrastructure is completely dependent on a stable power supply, and the electrical grid is usually one of the first things to go when weather-related disaster strikes. People often make the same mistake regarding cell phone service when in fact cellular networks are also vulnerable to physical damage. They can also succumb to heavy surges in traffic or get overloaded and become inaccessible due to under-charged mobile phones.
Don’t Put Your Communications Eggs In the Same Basket
The best solution is to build in redundancy into your communications systems, so that when one system fails, you can rollover into another, and if that one fails then another, and so on. But this can be prohibitively expensive. Some experts recommend using a satellite phone service as a backup, while others suggest good-old-fashioned ham radios, two-way radios, CB radios, or the establishment of private microwave communication links.
More often than not, these systems don’t pass the cost vs. reduction-of-probable-impact test.
Better to develop a disaster communication plan that builds upon your existing equipment. For example, telephone landlines often remain usable for some time when cell-phone infrastructure is compromised or overworked, but we can’t access the landlines because most modern telephone switchboards need power to operate. Make sure your organization has “unpowered” handsets ready to use in an emergency. You should also look for battery or e-power backups for phone switches, routers and gateways, Wi-Fi nodes, transceivers, and critical PCs.
And you should look for other alternatives such as establishing a backup communication site in another location far enough away as to be unaffected by the crisis in your region. For example, plan ahead for some basic voice or data communication; through a company portal at a field office or some other, supplier or business partner location.
Thinking ahead for the need to communicate during a time of crisis should be an essential part of any organization’s disaster recovery plan.
