Disaster Recovery

Disaster Preparedness

Disaster Recovery Planning (DRP)
It’s about implementing a disaster recovery plan to restore an organization’s critical business functions.
 
Business Continuity Planning (DCP)
It’s about disaster recovery for computer systems and services as one component while stressing continuous availability of all critical services.
 
The Key Word is Planning

  • to minimize loss
  • to ensure the continuity of an organization’s critical business functions in the event of disaster

 
A New Sense of Urgency

  • Terrorism
  • Computer viruses
  • Hackers
  • Increased reliance on computers
  • Increasing occurrence of emergencies and disasters
  • Only 35% of small to mid-sized businesses have a comprehensive disaster recovery plan in place
  • less than 10% have implemented crisis management, contingency, business continuity and business resumption plans.

 
The DRP Process

Step #1 – perform a business impact analysis

Step #2 – review the threat of:

  • Natural Disasters (Earthquake, Fire, Flood, Storms)
  • Acts of Terrorism (Weapons of Mass Destruction)
  • Power Outages and Power Failure
  • Computer Systems Failures
  • Computer Service Disruptions due to Hackers, Viruses, etc.

Step #3 – perform a cost benefit analysis

Step #4 – recommend strategies like:

  • alternate sites (hot, warm, and cold sites)
  • redundant data centers
  • disaster insurance
  • business impact analyses
  • legal liabilities.

Step #4 – implement the plan

Step #5 – test and audit the plan

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