Here are a few tips to think about preparing your data center before the next storm:

* Avoid relying on everything going according to plan.

* Counsel customers on the risks of their critical infrastructure failing and offer to help set up a disaster recovery solution.

* Don’t wait until you need roll-up generators or fuel hoses in data center. Be prepared.

* Ensure you have the supplies and assistance.

* Get sufficient staff in the data center before a storm hits.

* Keep customers involved and aware of the facility’s status, especially if you think you will lose power or need to shut down.

* Make sure contracts are in place for maintenance, fuel and any other services that may be needed during and after a storm.

* Regularly test a data center’s critical infrastructure.

* Stock up on flashlights, sleeping bags, water and non-perishable food for the crew.

* Think about customers and how you can help them prepare for a potential natural disaster.

* Use a public cloud environment so that should one facility go down, customers’ applications will fail over to another data center. 

Read the story about how two of PEER 1 Hosting’s data center team members, Mike Mazzei and Jeff Burns, experienced Hurricane Sandy - Why Data Centers Are Now More Prepared Than Ever Following Hurricane Sandy from The Data Center Journal