Who checks your fire extinguishers? Are they ready to use when it counts?
This isn’t likely the first thing you think about when you wake up, but that doesn’t mean it’s less important. Fire extinguishers are typically “out of sight, out of mind,” so it can be easy to neglect them. But the fact is, over time, they are no longer in calibration, and they either need to be repaired or replaced. If you haven’t inspected yours regularly, there’s a chance that if you try to use it to put out a chemical fire right now, it would not work effectively. And then where does that leave you?
Checking your fire extinguishers is an important part of keeping your business and home safe. For the workplace, OSHA has a strict protocol in place (standard #1910.157 to be exact) so that you have the proper protection when a potentially disruptive, or even dangerous, situation arises.
Following the protocol means you’re relentless about the process even though you can’t remember the last time that you had a fire. And because of that, many businesses choose to bring on a fire protection professional to make sure the job gets done, and gets done properly.
The process is meticulous. It includes things like:
- Looking for signs of damage or corrosion
- Checking pressure gauges
- Inspecting that the pull pin and seal are intact
- Replacing older equipment
- Verifying dates of the last inspection
- Recording results of visual inspection and scheduling the next one
Not super sexy stuff, right? But it is super essential.
Your Cloud Security
In a similar way, is your cloud security being checked? Who’s checking your fire extinguishers, when it comes to your data privacy?
It’s an important question to ask because it’s so easy to slip through the cracks. If it falls to your ops team, do they know where the fire extinguisher is for your data? Do they know the process and follow it?
Are you leaving it completely to a public cloud provider? Many public cloud providers work according to the shared responsibility model, which says the cloud provider is responsible for the security of the cloud, while the customer is responsible for security in the cloud.
And there are lots of benefits to that. Still, don’t you want to know who’s doing the little things that are essential to keeping your data safe?
We think about running a data platform the same way. It might not be a super sexy job, either. But it’s also super essential. And when the time comes, you want to know you’re ready for whatever comes next.
