More on Disaster Recovery.......and Why It's Important to You.

  We’ve all heard the stories over the last weeks, months and years about disasters that have struck areas throughout the United States, from floods and tornados, to wildfires, hurricanes, and terrorist attacks. But how many of us are prepared for such an event if it were to happen to us?

  Statistics say, not many. From Michael Ybarra's article, "Roadmap to Recovery":

“Disaster recovery used to be reserved for large enterprises, but in the increasingly 24/7 business world, more and more midmarket firms are finding they can't afford not to keep things running. And high-availability requirements are growing all the time. Forrester Research estimates that enterprises have doubled the number of mission-critical database applications in the past five years. Yet many firms remained poorly prepared. A Gartner survey found that almost half of midmarket and large enterprises had relatively weak DR plans. many firms remained poorly prepared. A Gartner survey found that almost half of midmarket and large enterprises had relatively weak DR plans.” If this is true, it’s likely that small and medium sized businesses are even less prepared, due to the lack of resources they have to commit to such a plan. 

 

  So why is it important for companies to have a disaster recovery or business continuity plan? Simply put, it’s just good business. Customers expect companies to be available at any moment, 24x7, so constant operational uptime is a major business driver today. The ability to keep a company up and running despite major and minor disruptions is simply a facet of serving customers and markets while remaining competitive.

  The companies that have disaster recovery/business continuity plans are the ones that are planning to be in business for the long term. Companies that don't have such a plan are rolling the dice, with their customers and shareholders assuming the risks.

  Given its importance, let's define business continuity planning. It is about fully analyzing your business and understanding the total impact and costs associated with any disruption to your normal business practices.

  

  A business continuity plan goes beyond your IT infrastructure to a comprehensive operational recovery plan that encompasses people, processes, and products. It is similar to both an insurance policy and an end-to-end business plan to minimize the disruption of business operations, including items such as facilities, workplace infrastructure, and IT infrastructure.

  Drilling down further, disaster recovery is a subset of the overall business continuity plan, which focuses on restoring the IT infrastructure should a disruption occur. Disaster tolerance is the disciplined methodology to architect redundancy and resiliency into the IT infrastructure to avoid disruption to the business functions in the first place. Disaster recovery and disaster tolerance go hand-in-hand for both reactive and proactive business continuity planning.