Last week, disruptions in cloud services offered by both Microsoft and Google affected millions of users. After Google experienced an outage that resulted in lack of access to Google Docs on Wednesday, Microsoft’s cloud services — including Office 365 and Hotmail — were down for several hours. As millions of Internet users rely on this data, the downtime for both Google and Microsoft highlight a need for these users to have a backup plan to prevent total catastrophe when the cloud goes down. Here are four things that every Internet user should do to avoid this catastrophe.

Use an Email Client

Though many joked about their friends and family who still used Hotmail and were affected by Microsoft’s downtime last week, the reality is that millions of people rely on Hotmail for most of their electronic communication. Though most business and corporate accounts have their own servers (or use Google Apps), the lack of access to personal email can paralyze anyone’s day or evening. If you use Hotmail, consider using an email client to read your mail instead. At the least, a client like Outlook (for Windows) or Mail (for OS X) can download your messages to your computer, which means you can always access them in the event of a Hotmail outage.

Draft and Save Important Docs on Your Desktop

I’ll be the first who needs to take my own advice, but it is a risky move to rely on accessibility to the Internet to read and revise documents. Though Google rarely experiences these problems, users still need an Internet connection to access Google Docs. (Similarly, Office 365 users also need to be online to share and collaborate on documents.) If the cloud makes it easier for you to personally edit a document from wherever you are, consider using Dropbox to not only save your file to your computer, but simultaneously back it up on Dropbox’s cloud. Should you ever leave your computer — or even sign online again — you will always have access to these files, but they are available for your to revise should you not have access to your own desktop.

Set Up a Second Email Address

Most professionals these days not only have a personal email address, but also one associated with their work. While you could always default to using your work email address should a service like Hotmail go down again, your work email is the property of your employer and can be searched and confiscated, potentially causing more problems for you. Instead of turning to your work email — if you even have access to it at home — consider setting up an email account with a different service. For those who are especially tech savvy, this would be a good time to set up email on your own server. For the mainstream, consider setting up a Gmail account if you have Hotmail, or vice versa. There are dozens of other great (and free) email providers available; while things are up and running again, consider browsing your options and setting up a backup to use in case your primary account goes down again.

Back Up and Export Vital Data

It is becoming increasingly harder to avoid storing vital and personal information on the Internet. Should you have no option but to collaborate on a budget in Google Docs, consider saving the article to your desktop or a USB drive in case you cannot access it during a critical moment. If you are concerned about the accessibility to Facebook or Twitter, you can download and back up your data from Facebook or Twitter. Don’t forget to back up your blog, too (or at least your blog posts). Most services feature an export option to make this easy. If your vital information is part of a Google Apps account, consider backing up this data — including your Google Docs and Gmail — with Backupify.

Were you affected by Google or Microsoft’s cloud services downtime last week? Let us know how you coped in the comments.