This year, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predicts up to four unusually active hurricanes. With that in mind, there’s no better time to test your disaster recovery (DR) plan. But to avoid data loss and expensive downtime from such catastrophes, there are several things that need to be accounted for.

Over the previous months, you’ve probably heard about new and disruptive trends like virtual assistants, smartphones, and automation technologies. Some of these IT solutions may even be placed on top of your business priority list. However, with floods, fires, and power outages just around the corner, disaster recovery and business continuity plans should always have a place on your annual budget.

Companies can pay a hefty sum if they ever experience any downtime. In fact, Delta Air Lines had a bad bout of severe downtime just last month. In just three days, the airline company cancelled 2300 scheduled flights and suffered $150 million in income loss.

Like all things man-made and otherwise, business continuity plans are not perfect. They too have pitfalls that can result in your business's failure if not accounted for immediately. Don’t blame it all on the IT guy, as often times the way a system is designed can also have loopholes.

We are no longer in the dark ages of Disaster Recovery. With the onset of cloud computing, DR has become more efficient and affordable than ever. Despite this fact, many business owners still cling to their medieval DR mindsets and myths that belong in debates among king Arthur and his knights of the round table.

When and if disaster strikes, is your business going to continue to operate and cater to customers despite a possible long-term hardware failure or a network disruption? If you answer no or are not even sure what to do, you are part of a majority of business owners who have not considered disaster preparedness and the crucial role it plays in business survival.

You are protecting your small or medium-sized business with insurance - of course you are. But is that really enough? The recent increase in natural disasters has led savvy business owners to also take out business interruption insurance, which covers many additional scenarios in the event that you are unable to carry on operating.