When you hear the word “disaster,” you might think of a hurricane or earthquake. However, it does not take a natural disaster to take down your IT systems. Many events can have such a profound effect on your IT systems that they qualify as disaster.

The good news is that nearly three-quarters of business owners believe their business operations could continue if they retained their data, even after losing all other assets. This means that an IT disaster recovery service could keep your business going when an emergency occurs. Here are five unusual IT disasters that you may want to prepare for:

Key Employee Loss

Almost every business has the one network administrator that you always call whenever there is a computer problem. It does not matter if the call goes out because a printer is not connecting or the e-mail server is down. But what happens when that network admin is sick?

Worse yet, are you prepared if your IT director is suddenly hospitalized or quits their job? While IT professionals are trained to document everything so that the business can continue without them, documentation is a low priority compared to keeping the IT systems up and running.

Having a backup in the form of an IT disaster recovery service can help maintain business continuity when key employees are lost. IT disaster recovery services can provide backup data center solutions and keep your PBX systems on line until your key employee can return or is replaced.

Sabotage

Much attention is paid to outside hacking. However, insider threats can pose a serious threat to your IT systems.

Insider threats sometimes arise from poor user account management. For example, when a company becomes lax in removing network access for former employees, those former employees can enter the network without triggering any security alerts.

These insiders can wreak havoc in your network because they know where to find important information. An insider could steal valuable information, delete records and data, or release viruses or other malware into your system.

Cyber security consulting services have experience and knowledge necessary to deal with insider threats and counter these types of IT disasters. Moreover, preparing for a potential inside hack with an IT disaster recovery service can help to mitigate the damage if an insider manages to evade detection.

Loss of Electricity

It may seem elementary, but computers do not work without electricity. Even with this knowledge, however, many businesses rely on their utility providers or building managers to provide a continuous source of electricity. If your commercial building offers backup generators, they may not be sufficient for all your business needs. Rather, they may only be sufficient to power emergency lighting, fire suppression, and elevators so that the building can be safely evacuated in the event of a loss of electricity.

Again, planning ahead with an IT disaster recovery service can minimize the loss of power. This plan can include data backups and a contingency plan for either powering your IT systems or switching to a remote backup system when power is lost.

Physical Damage

While businesses often focus on electrical or IT risks, you should not forget that your IT systems have a physical existence as well. This places your servers, hard drives, and routers at risk of fire, theft, and vandalism.

Again, a disgruntled former employee may be able to use a key or keycard that was not returned to access your network room. From here, the former employee can damage or destroy the hardware that keeps your business running.

Alternatively, even with the best fire suppression systems, a fire can turn your IT hardware into ashes and melted metal if it burns too long. IT disaster recovery services include plans for both protecting your physical hardware and recovering from the loss of that physical hardware.

The Unknown

Sometimes a disaster is a disaster because no one saw it coming. A terrorist attack, massive hacking incident, or sinkhole opening up right under your building cannot be planned for, but it can be prepared for. Like any form of disaster recovery, contingency plans and backups can prevent the unexpected disaster from ending your business.

IT disaster recovery services can prepare for most disasters, whether they are anticipated or completely unexpected. Rely on ICC to transform your business’s recovery systems today.