Back when I was much younger, I took small businesses from manual, paper-based business operations to automated, computerized systems. The business owners feared the security, reliability, and accuracy of a computer system against their paper-based system I was taking away from them.

Throughout my technology career, their concerns remained in the back of my mind. How reliable is this system? What would happen if it crashed? What systems were in place that would restore operations if the worst thing possible happened? What plans are in place to keep us operating even if the worst thing happened.

Hurricanes happen. Tornadoes Happen. Internet goes down? Do you throw up your hands in every situation and say “we can’t operate”? 20 minutes isn’t too bad. 20 hours isn’t that bad. What happens if it is 20 days? 20 weeks? Is that scenario possible?

In my many years in technology, I have never walked into a business that had a great, let me rephrase that, a good disaster plan. Are you dependant on one person on the inside? Are you dependant on one person on the outside? Are you dependant on one company on the outside?

Do you like the idea of being able to run your business without that one entity? More than once, I have walked into situations where the business had no idea how their technology ran every day. After a few months, I could walk away, with the business being able to function well without me. They knew where to go, what to do, whom to call if they had a problem. There was no single source. They had options.

What is your disaster plan?