We were not expecting that tornado that went through our community at 4:00am Eastern a few weeks ago, destroying many homes, small businesses, corporate business facilities, even a Wells Fargo Bank blew off in to the sunrise. Regardless of where you live and work the next disaster is just around the corner, whether it be a tornado, hurricane, snow storm, earthquake, flooding, forest fire, or something as simple as prolonged loss of power. When your business, and your life in many cases, sets inside that little black/grey box called a computer, you are one heartbeat away from devastation.

Time for broken record #1 – backup, backup, backup! That doesn’t mean make a copy and stick it in your car, as a flood don’t care if it washes away your office and your car, or a fire burns down your office and your home, or an earthquake renders your geographic area inaccessible. Mountains have withstood the test of time and many off-site backup facilities are located inside of major mountains. They have endured centuries of all mother nature could produce, yet they still stand. If your data is stored there, it will withstand that same test of time. It is simple, it is cheap, and in reality 99% of the utilization is wasted money because it will never be needed. Are you exempt from that one percent? Think of off-site backup just as you do your car insurance; you pay every month and hope you never have to use it.

Randy Harwick
Technical Services Engineer
American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys, Inc.
9444 Balboa Avenue, Suite 300
San Diego, California 92123
Phone: (800) 846-1555
www.aaepa.com