Don’t Be Complacent: Hurricane Season Is Here Until Nov. 30th

Hurricane season runs through November 30. This year, it’s been relatively quiet with only three named storms and no hurricanes in the Atlantic Basin so far, but that’s no reason to be complacent. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) recently revised its 2022 hurricane forecast:

“We’re just getting into the peak months of August through October for hurricane development, and we anticipate that more storms are on the way,” said NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad, Ph.D.

NOAA’s Revised Outlook

NOAA’s hurricane update (which covers the entire six-month season from June 1 to November 30) includes the following predictions:

• 14-20 named storms (winds of 39+ mph) of which 6-10 could become hurricanes (winds of 74+ mph)
• 3-5 could become major hurricanes (winds of 111+ mph)
• NOAA’s confidence level: 70%

Be Prepared

NOAA’s forecast doesn’t include landfall hurricanes which are governed by short-term weather patterns. Predicting if a hurricane reaches the coastline can only happen about one week after a storm forms. Dangerous weather patterns can form quickly and without warning. To stay ahead of potential disasters, organizations must have a solid plan in place for power outages and flooding.

A Strong Backup Strategy

Backing up data is an important part of any disaster recovery plan. Backups also should be frequent, tested, secure, encrypted, and stored offsite. If you don’t have a backup strategy, below are some considerations:

Define Your Backup Needs: Backup frequency should support your recovery point objective (RPO), which is the maximum amount of time an organization has to recover from data loss based on the last backup. Understanding your RPO determines how often your backups are scheduled.

Storage: You need the answers to two important questions: How much data must be stored, and how quickly is the data growing? Storing large datasets for an extended period requires ample space, and some vendors place restrictions on the amount of data that organizations can store.

Infrastructure: Do you need cloud backup, onsite backup solution, or a combination of both? While cloud backups are preferred for most organizations, some clients in highly regulated industries (such as healthcare, government, military and finance) must adhere to strict security practices that don’t allow for their most sensitive materials to be stored in the cloud.

Compliance: Government compliance regulations are always changing. For example, HIPAA requires exact copies of electronic Protected Health Information (PHI) to be backed up securely. Make sure your organization and backup vendor know these ever-changing policies.

Recovery Point’s Backup Service

Recovery Point helps organizations select and implement the best backup solution. Our vendor-agnostic approach helps you define and customize the plan that best fits your needs for security, retention, compliance, data access, and cost. Our best-in-class data protection solutions all include:

• Encryption in-Flight and at-Rest
• Built-in dedupe and compression to decrease storage and bandwidth
• Immediate data access
• No hidden fees (which means no transaction, network or egress fees)
• Multiple performance tiers, including tape, to manage data at the lowest cost
• Ultimate Air Gap Protection — Offline protection against cyberattacks and ransomware with fully managed physical tape, “air-gap” services

Unlike services offered by many cloud providers, restoration times can begin in minutes, no matter the storage tier. Recovery Point offerings are all part of a single contract to help you manage your data, end-to-end, with complete visibility at all times.