Flood-proofing your business IT

The floods in Queensland and now further south in Australia are a reminder that natural disasters can strike even in rich, technologically advanced nations. Data backups are essential, but business continuity planning also needs to cover communications links, the computers themselves, documentation, premises and, of course, the human factor.

On Patch Monday this week, our guest is Tom Worthington. He works with both the Australian National University and the CSIRO, and has a particular interest in IT in emergency situations.

Worthington believes that, considering the extent of the floods, our communications infrastructure held up rather well, despite reports of mobile phone outages and datacentres being shut down.

Yet households and businesses will have been hit harder. To cope with any future disasters — floods, fires or whatever might happen — people should start planning now.

We also hear from Lewis Benge, one of the volunteers who across the weekend founded Queensland IT Relief. It's seeking donations of computers, phones and other technology to help those affected by the floods. It can be contacted via its website or on 02 8003 7213.

As usual, Patch Monday also includes my random look at last week's IT news.

To leave an audio comment for Patch Monday, Skype to stilgherrian or phone Sydney 02 8011 3733.

Further listening, from April 2010: SMBs, you need to back-up too.

Running time: 30 minutes, 40 seconds

(Carousel image credit: Trapped Woman 2 image, by Timothy, CC2.0)