Are you ready for when hurricane Lala hits today?

8 minutes ago
3 min read

Tropical storm and potential hurricane Lala arrives on the islands today. This is your last chance to get your IT ready for what might happen over the weekend. Double check - is your business prepared for possible power outages, power surges, internet and communication outages and water damage?

The Takeaway

Don't panic - I have you covered. Here are the top 7 things you should do now so that it can be business-as-usual when you come back into the office Monday morning:

Protect against power problems. Check to make sure that you're using battery backups and surge protectors for critical computers, servers, networking equipment and phones. Whatever you have plugged directly into the wall could fry when the power surges either before or after power is lost. Systems can get damaged even when plugged into power strips, so just to be safe, if there are computers or electronics that won't be used, unplug them.
Prepare for internet and phone outages. Make sure staff know what to do if internet, email, or phones go down and have a backup way to communicate. If cell phones are your backup, make sure those numbers are shared among your team before they're needed.
Back up important data now. Unless your work files are 100% cloud-based, double-check your backups. Make sure they're current, stored somewhere other than your office, and that someone knows how to access them if something happens.
Move equipment away from water risks. Keep computers, power strips, battery backups and other important equipment off the floor and away from windows or areas prone to leaks or flooding. Remember, your office doesn't have to flood directly for water to become a problem - neighboring offices, ceilings and walls can leak too.
Have a shutdown and restart plan. Know how to safely power down systems if needed and who is responsible for bringing everything back online once conditions improve. Don't assume everything should simply be switched back on as soon as the power returns. Give the power time to stabilize and bring critical equipment back online in an orderly way.
Make sure everyone knows Monday's plan. Decide ahead of time who is expected to come in, who can work remotely, who has the authority to close the office and how employees will be notified. You don't want people trying to make decisions in panic mode.
Make sure you can run the business without getting into the office. Think about what you would need if the building were inaccessible for a few days or more (like Topa Tower 😉). Make sure the right people can remotely access important systems, cloud accounts, banking, payroll, customer information, insurance information and critical vendor contacts. If the only copy of something important is sitting in your office, now is the time to fix that.

Hopefully the storm passes with minimal impact, but spending a little time preparing today can really pay off.

Stay safe out there.

-Attila

PS. I was interviewed by Think Tech this week about the new AI-based street surveillance being done across the islands. It's a more in-depth interview than the one that was made for KHON2, so we get to dig deeper into what's going on. Check it out!