* 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