Business Continuity Planning for Natural Disasters: IT Infrastructure Checklist

Southern California businesses face unique natural disaster risks — earthquakes, wildfires, PSPS (Public Safety Power Shutoffs), and extreme heat events. Your IT infrastructure is either a single point of failure or your lifeline. Here is how to make it the latter.

## Power Resilience

### UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) Every network closet, server room, and critical device needs UPS protection: - **Runtime target:** 30-60 minutes for graceful shutdown, 4+ hours for continued operation - **UPS sizing:** Calculate total PoE draw + server draw + 20% headroom - **Battery type:** Lithium-ion for longer life and reduced maintenance vs lead-acid - **Monitoring:** SNMP-enabled UPS with automated shutdown scripts

### Generator For extended outages: - Automatic transfer switch (ATS) for seamless failover - Natural gas or propane (diesel is fine but requires fuel delivery logistics) - Minimum 72-hour fuel capacity - Monthly test runs under load (not just idle)

### Solar + Battery Emerging option for Southern California businesses: - Solar panels offset daily power costs - Battery storage (Tesla Powerwall, Enphase) provides backup during outages - Grid-tied systems with automatic islanding for blackout protection

## Network Resilience

### Dual WAN Two internet circuits from different providers and different entry points: - Primary: Fiber from provider A entering through front of building - Secondary: 5G FWA, cable, or fiber from provider B entering through rear - SD-WAN or dual-WAN router for automatic failover

### Cloud-First Architecture Applications and data in the cloud survive local disasters: - Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace for email and documents - Cloud-hosted phone system (VoIP continues from any internet connection) - Cloud backup with geographic redundancy (replicate to another region)

## Data Protection

### 3-2-1-1-0 Backup Rule - 3 copies of data - 2 different media types - 1 off-site copy - 1 immutable (ransomware-proof) copy - 0 errors (verified through automated restore testing)

### Geographic Diversity For Southern California businesses, off-site backups should be in a different seismic zone: - Arizona (different seismic zone, same time zone) - Oregon/Washington (different fire risk profile) - Cloud regions with explicit geographic separation

## Communication Plan

When the office is unreachable: - Cloud-based phone system works from any device with internet - Microsoft Teams or Slack for internal communication - Pre-configured VPN or ZTNA for remote work - Emergency contact list accessible from personal devices

Summit DNC designs disaster-resilient IT infrastructure for Southern California businesses — from power backup systems to cloud migration and business continuity planning.