(Data Loss Recovery News) Requests for data recovery are on the rise during summer months, a result of high temperatures contributing to data loss problems. That’s according to Kroll Ontrack, a data loss recovery company. They say that for the past several years there has been an 8-14% increase in business over the summer months of June, July, and August when compared to March, April, and May.

“While data loss can happen at any time, we have seen a distinct increase in demand for recovery services from second to third quarter, which coincides with the onset of the summer season as well as severe weather,” said Jeff Pederson, manager of Ontrack Data Recovery engineering operations for Kroll Ontrack. “This summer, we have already seen an uptick in the number of jobs. While this may be tied to the recovering economy, the data seems to be trending in the same direction as previous years.”

There are a variety of factors contributing to the data loss.

“Causes range from IT maintenance-related issues and gaps in IT processes to floods, hurricanes, and rolling blackouts and power outages caused by intense heat and higher usage of electricity and air conditioning,” said Todd Johnson, vice president of Ontrack Data Recovery operations for Kroll Ontrack. “Heavy storms and flooding are also significant causes of data loss. Over the past couple months, we’ve seen an influx of these types of jobs in particular.”

Kroll Ontrack recently received multiple servers from a customer whose data center was affected by a local river flood. Water flooded the data center, destroying dozens of servers and hard drives. The disaster was compounded by the fact that the company hosted hundreds of virtual server machines, affecting the data of thousands of customers.

Fortunately, there are several simple steps that enterprise and home users can take to prevent this type of scenario, lessening the chances of a data loss related to extreme weather conditions in the summer.

Business Users:

• Extreme heat can result in the premature failure of hard drives, while low humidity combined with dust in drought conditions can promote static electricity issues with electrical components. Adjust temperature and humidity control systems accordingly during changing weather conditions.
• Ensure the continuity of IT processes and systems through appropriate training of all IT administrators, and plan for backup resources.
• Conduct data backups regularly and often, and ensure backups and critical documents are stored offsite.
• Consider uploading data to the cloud, which may protect customer data from natural disasters.

Home Users

• Install a surge protector and get in the habit of turning off your desktop computer or laptop during a storm to avoid any power strikes or surges caused by lightning strikes.
• Backup your data at least once a month or more often.
• Move important files and information, such as personal documents and photos, to a USB drive.
• Before leaving for vacation, turn off and unplug your laptop or desktop computer.
• Keep your computer hard drive off the ground and in a cool, dry area to prevent overheating and water damage should flooding occur.