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Sometimes, even when you think you have a plan in place, things can arise that test that plan and cause you to rethink your data backup and security needs. In this interview, Rosana Santos, Big Chef, (www.bigchefonline.com) discusses what happened to her when two very different types of disasters occurred for her company.

Her company, Big Chef, located in Hollywood, Florida, produces a wide variety of delectable frozen Hors d'oeuvre and Canapés, with a one year shelf life. In addition, they are Custom Food Creators. Their products are served in hotels, convention centers, country clubs, airlines and at events. Rosana says “Our food is a sensorial experience, a fusion of aromas, colors, tastes, textures, and presentation that delight the palate and satisfy the senses.”

Rosana Santos is a Make Mine a Million $ Business Awardee.

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Interview with Rosana Santos, Big Chef   

When did you first become aware of the need for data backup and security for your business?

I would have to say I didn’t give it much thought until just after Hurricane Wilma in 2005. At that time, we lost everything: inventory, equipment, paper files, everything. There was a power outage for days. And it turned out that our generator was too small, so we got a second and then a third one. The third generator was so powerful it burned everything … all our computers were fried. That’s when I learned that thankfully our IT person had installed a backup drive. So, we burned out the hardware and had to buy new computers, but the backup was fine. Of course, we didn’t have that much data back then, so a single backup drive was all we needed. That backup was a major factor in our ability to get the business up and running again.

Did you already have a disaster plan in place prior to that?

Yes and no. We’re in the food business, so the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) impose a lot of requirements on us for food security. They make sure we secure the water supply, storage areas, and shipping … things like that. It’s not something I can even talk about in detail. But in any case, we have lots of measures in place, but none of them really address data security. Thank goodness our IT person just did everything on his own. I didn’t even have to ask. That’s why we were in good shape after the hurricane.

So what are some measures you now have in place regarding data security and back up?

I’m happy to say we do a lot of things right. After the hurricane, we got a server, and it’s on a backup schedule. We do not open any mail unless we know who it’s from. We don’t click on links. We have nonsense passwords that are difficult to crack. We are aware of the red flags for identify theft and have shared that with all employees. But even with all we’re doing right, I learned a hard lesson recently … regarding something we hadn’t planned for.

Tell us about what happened.

Well, as I said, everything was fine. We try to keep our major software applications up to date, every other year or so. Therefore, not too long ago, I decided to update to Quickbooks 2008, and I installed it by myself. Suddenly, my server crashed and there were data corruption messages everywhere. All the files were gone! My IT person tried to do a remote recovery, but it was impossible. We had to bring in another company that worked directly in our office for days. In addition, Quickbooks’ data recovery staff worked on it for 11 days.

During this period, the daily operation was chaos -- handwriting invoices, checks and “draw against payroll”. Finally, we were able to recover everything up until the day I installed the new version, but we had to reconstruct everything from that point forward. It turns out that every time you add or upgrade software, the file name changes. And it will not copy the new programs. We only had one backup then, which was a big problem.

So as a result of that experience, what changes did you make in your data backup systems?

Now we have a new server with a double-brain. It has two backups - - one daily, and one for add-ons. And then we also do a weekly full backup. In addition, we have online backup (called Carbonite). And right now I’m working toward an extra backup to my website. We do monthly backups for Quickbooks, and we can download from anywhere – so even if there’s another hurricane, we should be in pretty good shape.

Given your experiences with data backup and disaster recovery, what would you recommend to other women business owners?

With regard to IT security, I would recommend business owners do the following (at a minimum):

• Have more than one backup for sure.
• Every time you add or upgrade software or equipment, make sure your backup is programmed accordingly
• Be preventive and proactive. That means updating your antivirus and firewall security regularly, installing effective Password policies – even our WIFI is on high security.

As for other things you can do to deal with potential disasters or emergencies, one thing I’d recommend is to train employees to have backup duties covered. For example, my employees now have backups assigned, and we do staff rotations, so in case someone isn’t there in an emergency, someone else knows what to do.

Oh, and make sure your insurance is up to date. After the hurricane, our insurance wasn’t covering everything because we had grown. If you upgrade or grow, make sure your insurance grows with you.