2020. What an odd year. We have seen some interesting things throughout time, but 2020 has brought something new to many of us. And it leads us to the often-asked question, Are We Ready?
As we are all acutely aware, 2020 has brought new problems to the table, probably ones that we never expected. The Coronavirus-19 has changed the way we look at our world. But, should it also change the way we look at Disaster Recovery?
If you are like me, I make sure that I attempt to plan for every possible disaster that could impact our data centers. Whether it be flooding, fire, tornadoes, hurricanes, power outages, to something more like a potential nuclear war or intentional internal destruction or sabotage, we all need to have plans in place for restoring our data center back to what is what prior to the disaster. But, are we looking at everything?
With Coronavirus-19, I have done more thinking about what could impact us in the future. Along with that, the current social unrest as well as a heated political campaign for the presidency in the United States, are there other things that could impact our data centers in the coming years, or even months?
Take, for example, if the current president loses in his attempt to retain the presidency. Do we automatically assume that everything will remain as it is? Or does the potential exist for a civil conflict that turns our world upside down? If a pandemic can cause this much damage to everything we are accustomed to, imagine what a civil conflict might bring.
I am not trying to say that any of this actually has a decent chance of occurring. What I am saying is that we, as Disaster Recovery Managers and practitioners, must do everything in our power to make sure that we have thought of every type of disaster that could happen and that we have planned for each of those. If the chance is even extremely remote that any of these disasters could occur, don’t we owe it to our organizations to at least consider those possibilities and plan for them?
What could happen during a time of civil unrest in the United States? It is impossible to tell. However, what is clear is that opposing groups could very well attempt to take over infrastructure within the US so they could control certain aspects of the country. Do the take over or cut power to control certain infrastructure or cities? Do they take over buildings that are large and have various protections built into them?
It is nearly impossible to predict the future. We do get a good glimpse of what is going to happen as the world around us changes. Wildfires have been burning out of control and record temperatures continue to be set across the southwest states in the US. Again, I am not saying that this will necessarily continue. What I am trying to point out is that we are not able to tell if this could impact our data centers or recovery plans. While geologists and other scientists believe it will continue to get worse, have we taken into account every possible outcome associated with these increases in temperature and fires burning out of control?
We may not think that any of these issues could impact our data centers. I would recommend that you think twice about it. Start thinking outside the box and put together a list of issues that could arise from any of these disasters possibly occurring. We owe it to our organizations to be prepared for any disaster. The ones that may take out our data centers and end our organizations may not be the ones that we have had to consider in the past. They may be something that we never would have considered impacting them. So, I ask you again, are we ready?
