When a hurricane strikes, paramedics, law enforcement officers, and firefighters, are essential to make sure everyone is safe before, during, and after the natural disaster. That means that they rely on seamless video, voice, and data communication flow to steer their decisions. Unfortunately, a hurricane can cause disruptions to essential files and data stored on computers and hard drives, affecting the services of first responders. Therefore, they need to adopt and integrate new technology into data storage and communication.
Related Blog: Technologies to aid Disaster Relief and Search and Rescue Missions
Let’s take a look at how cloud storage can help protect essential documents this hurricane season.
What is Cloud Storage?
Cloud storage is a form of storing digital information on virtual or cloud servers, including photos, documents, and videos.
With this data storage solution, first responders can quickly transfer and access data on an off-site storage system. In addition, the solution allows you to access data at any time over the internet. Furthermore, cloud storage is usually hosted by third-party vendors who manage security, capacity, and durability, ensuring efficient data access to your applications worldwide. Cloud storage providers can also customize your storage solutions based on your requirements.
How Cloud Storage Can Help Save Data
Cloud storage offers immense benefits, especially in times of disasters like hurricanes. Here's how and why first responders should store their data in their cloud.
1. Access Data Anywhere
Sometimes the impact of a hurricane can be devastating. It can destroy offices and properties including computers and hard drives. If your organization relies only on physical storage solutions, you risk losing all your data during a hurricane.
However, with a cloud storage solution, you don't have to worry about losing data. Even if your physical properties are destroyed, you'll still be able to retrieve your valuable data from the cloud.
2. Data Backup
Backup and recovery are essential aspects of data storage and protection. Data in the cloud is not backed up once but many times. This is because although the data is stored on the cloud, it also lives on physical servers.
So even if a hurricane affects one of the servers, you'll still have copies of your data on other servers. Cloud storage providers have multiple data centers in different parts of the world, which prevents data loss from physical damage from hurricanes or other natural disasters.
3. 24/7 Monitoring
With cloud storage, you can rest assured that your data is much safer during a hurricane. Cloud networks are constantly under surveillance to ensure the security of your data. Furthermore, cloud storage providers have utilized cyber security experts in their dedicated operation centers to monitor and prevent digital threats. This assures that hackers will be locked out if they try to steal your data.
Cloud storage providers will also stress-test their systems and applications to identify potential points of failure and to patch every piece of their software.
Protecting your data during a hurricane is essential, especially for first responders. While there are various ways to protect data, cloud storage is the best solution. It allows you to access data anytime, have secure data backups, and 24/7 monitoring. Schedule a consultation with us to explore custom data storage solutions for your agency.
