While we don’t have the ability to control the weather, technology has provided us with the ability to work from anywhere and in many cases, allowing business operations to continue from the comfort and safety of our homes.

Working remotely during hurricane season can be significantly more challenging, but it’s not impossible. To help your job weather the storm, consider the following tips to keep your workflow going. 

Back Up Files

Prior to any storm, it’s a best practice to back up any electronic documents or important files to the cloud or an external company server. This ensures that other members of the team will be able to continue working on tasks that you don’t have access to. Grayson Data clients can take advantage of our cloud to cloud backup services as well as our physical to cloud backup. GDS also offers a way to run your services in a virtual environment while your servers are offline. 

Scout Backup Locations

Although you most likely won’t be going anywhere during the storm, there is generally a lengthy cleanup period after a hurricane is over. Take the time to scout out alternative work locations, such as a coworking space or coffee shop, that might have power restored before your home does.

Communicate Frequently

Maintain communication with work during and directly after the storm, if possible. Try using email on your phone or an app if you have cell service but can’t keep your internet connection on your phone.  Briefly alerting your team about the challenges you’re facing in connectivity can help you all work together to meet deadlines and maintain your workflow. 

Provide Key Resources

Security

While securing your home before/after a hurricane should be your first priority, don’t forget to keep security in mind on your PC, as well. Scammers never stop, and you may become an easy target working remotely if you don’t have all the standard security that your office provides.

A basic security checklist that our clients can use:

• Remember not to join unsecure wireless networks. Use a portable hotspot or a portable firewall to secure your connection. 
• Use a VPN connection when you are connected to a different network that isn’t your hotspot or your normal internet connection. 
• Follow the zero trust model. If you have to connect to a network and you are unsure of the security (not recommended), then you should enable our zero trust applications that will encrypt all your network data and restrict outside devices from accessing your device. 
• Make sure any account you access has MFA enabled. This will help prevent future attacks of scammers getting your username and password. 

As always, please don’t hesitate to reach out at 504-595-1579 or ContactUs@GraysonDS.com if you have any questions or need assistance regarding the information above.