Municipal governments are responsible for recovery when a natural disaster hits a community. Because local governments coordinate emergency response and relief efforts, their offices can’t afford to fall victim to the same traumatic incident that affects their constituents.
Municipal governments need robust disaster recovery strategies that protect them from major disasters. Cloud-based disaster recovery helps ensure that municipal governments can operate to their fullest ability after a disaster hits their community. With disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS), municipal governments can use real-time data and communication tools to orchestrate recovery efforts.
The First Line of Defense
Municipal governments need to be there for their constituents to help them prepare for and recover from a disaster. Local governments ensure that fire, police, and emergency personnel are sent to locations where their services are needed for search and rescue.
After a disaster, the government plays a key role in restoring vital resources. Water and power utilities need to get back up and running. Victims of the disaster require transportation and shelter. Debris must be removed so residents can return to their neighborhoods and resume their lives. Local governments help residents access FEMA and Red Cross resources for recovery.
Unless municipal governments can protect and restore their systems and access their data, none of these recovery efforts can happen. Municipal governments require an off-site backup and recovery solution that protects their systems and information from the disaster that struck their community. They also need to be able to recover quickly.
Creating a Refuge
Municipal governments store vital data needed to make crucial decisions before and after a natural disaster. This data needs to be protected from floods, fires, hurricanes, blizzards, and major power outages. The best way to protect this information is to back it up off-premises, far from government offices.
Cloud-based disaster recovery provides the geographical diversity needed to protect data and systems. The right cloud provider will have many data center options that are widely distributed. Natural disasters can affect huge areas, so using a cloud data center that is in another region is a good idea.
Municipal governments typically operate on a tight budget, so implementing a rigorous disaster recovery plan can be difficult. DRaaS allows local governments to access robust disaster recovery resources at a cost effective rate. DRaaS frees governments from the capital expenses of building a secondary site for backup and recovery. Instead, they can acquire cloud resources for a monthly subscription fee.
Bouncing Back After a Crisis
Municipal governments need to respond quickly after a disaster. Actions taken during the first minutes and hours after a disaster can reduce the number of casualties by ensuring that victims get the prompt help they need.
Recovery time objectives (RTOs) must be met to guarantee the best emergency response. Cloud-based disaster recovery provides instant failover so government agencies gain access to data immediately. Instant failover, combined with synchronized backups, delivers ideal recovery point objectives (RPOs) so the data governments use to make decisions is current and complete.
Getting Ahead of the Winter Storm Season
November means the beginning of the winter storm season, which can stretch all the way into March and April for the Northeast. Last year’s bombogenesis brought three winter storms in March that pummeled the East Coast. Municipal governments should be proactive by implementing cloud-based disaster recovery.
FirstLight has a long track record of successfully providing high quality, fiber-based communications solutions to municipal governments. Our services for local governments include cloud-based disaster recovery and telecommunication solutions supported by our fiber optic network.
Is your municipality prepared for winter storm season? Get ready by working with FirstLight.
