Emergency Preparedness & IT Part 4: Spares & Warranties

In the event of a major event, warranties will not do much for you.  They are good to have during your typical daily operations, covering part failures as needed with as little as one day turn around time, but when things go really bad you can't count on them.  As was the case with Hurricane / "Superstorm" Sandy, transportation was severely impacted and nothing was getting moved into or out of the effected region.  You need to "self warranty" as much as you can, and as much as it reasonable to.

Emergency Preparedness & IT Part 3: Documentation

Documentation is something that every IT professional should do, but it's something that none of us really do.  There's lots of reasons for this: lack of time, environment changes too fast, lack of desire.  Whatever the reason is, there's no reason good enough to not document your network.  And in emergencies, documentation is invaluable.

Emergency Preparedness & IT Part 2: Remote Access

While it's a really nice feature to have on a day to day basis, having remote access to your servers and network gear during a crisis / emergency is vital.  Especially considering that you or your staff may not be able to even get into the data center.  These remote access cards or devices are typically not that expensive, and can really save your skin if it comes to it.  The more things you can do remotely, the better off you are.

Emergency Preparedness & IT Part 1: Power

In light of the recent Hurricane Sandy events, it may be a good time to bring up the "what if" of major catastrophes.  I'm no expert in this field, but I've done my share of recovery and preparedness planning.  I'm going to present some of the things to consider and plan for, in the event that your data center & network gets seriously damaged.  This is NOT a "preppers" article, or a "SHTF" article.  This is purely focused on networks, servers, and getting them through the "tough times of down times".  This is a multi-part series, just to make it easier to read and parse...don't want to scare anyone away with one giant article..