With hurricane season starting this month, businesses need to establish and test plans for how they will protect network data and gear, and recover from outages, the Association for Information Communications Technology Professionals in Higher Education says.

To that end, ACUTA and the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) has issued a hurricane prep checklist it recommends as a basis for all businesses.

Proper staffing is essential. Institutions should set up emergency operations centers (EOC) and assign employees who will staff it. They should also check for personnel from outside the area that might be able to join the EOC team in an emergency and make sure those supplemental team members have tetanus shots and other immunizations that might be required, the groups said.

Lists of authorized personnel that will be allowed in restricted areas during the emergency should be established including name, birth date and Social Security number.

The advice includes realizing that most employees will need to be allowed to go home to take care of their families, and provisions must be made for critical employees to return to work to take care of university networks.

Plans for rerouting traffic if network capabilities fail should be tested to make sure they are ready. Network executives should establish liaisons with all their wireless providers so they can find out during storms what links are still working. The check list emphasizes shifting communications from landline and traditional wireless communications to satellite phones, radios, text pagers and long distance foreign exchange lines as backup when the hurricane has brought down primary networks.

The key is setting up the plan beforehand, practicing and shipping all necessary gear so it is in place when storms hit.

Protecting the physical and data assets of the network is essential, ACUTA says, and the check list provides a list of specifics steps to take:
•  Backup computers.
•  Move backed-up data to high ground and maintain a list of locations.
•  Remove electrical gear from basements and low-lying spots likely to flood.
•  Plastic-bag computers.
•  Move network assets upstairs to rooms without windows and cover them with tarps.

Teams should coordinate with campus security to protect critical network assets throughout the emergency.