Webre Not in Kansas Anymore

8 out of 10 of the most costly disasters in the US have been hurricanes.B So, if youbre not in bhurricane territoryb, can you rest easy?

Well, the other 2 most costly disasters were the World Trade Center attack and the Northridge earthquake b ranked 3 and 4 right behind hurricanes Katrina and Andrew.B In situations like this, there is no time for last minute preparations.B If you werenbt prepared before disaster struck, it was too late.

The same goes for lots of other potential threats.B In the bWizard of Ozb, Dorothy was wisked away by a tornado.B I doubt her computer would have survived as well as she did.B And, most flooding starts with a manageable amount of rain from a storm.B All it takes is a bstallb in the stormbs movement and water collects too fast for drainage systems to handle.

With improvements in technology, weB donbt think much about hardware failure these days.B But, consider these rather startling statistics that are generally accepted in the data recovery field and reported by the University of North Carolinabs Information Technology Service:

• A hard drive crashes every 15 seconds

• 2,000 laptops are stolen or lost every day

• 32% of data loss is caused by human error

• 31% of PC users have lost all of their PC files to events beyond their control

• 25% of lost data is due to the failure of a portable drive

• 44% of data loss is caused by mechanical failure

• 15% or more of laptops are stolen or suffer hard drive failures

• 1 in 5 computers suffer a fatal hard drive crash during their lifetime

• 40% of small and medium-sized businesses don’t back up their data at all

• 60% of all data is held on PC desktops and laptops

Professor David M. Smith, PhD, of Pepperdine Universitybs Graziadio School of Business and Management writes: bThe cost of lost data from computers is substantial. Businesses must be proactive in protecting this important resource.b

Collocation and/or virtualization of your servers is one of the easiest and most cost-effective ways to protect your business from a critical loss of data.B We have many great options available.B Donbt delay – make this discussion a btop priorityb before itbs too late.