BACKUP - It's Gonna Blow!

You always back up your important documents right? You diligently save everything to your corporate network, feeling secure in the backups being performed. But do you know if those backups are ever being restored to test them? Do you save really important files to an external drive like a flash drive and are the company backups being kept off-site? From hurricanes to simple power outages - disasters, unpredictable by nature, can strike anywhere at any time with little or no warning. Is your company prepared?

Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity - these are two phrases that are often uttered after a system crashes or becomes incapacitated. Disaster Recovery Planning is the factor that makes the critical difference between the organizations that can successfully manage crises with minimal cost and effort and maximum speed, and those that are left picking up the pieces. A Business Continuity Plan will help a business stay in business during a crisis. 

In order to stay competitive, today's business needs to have a strategy in place to avert and minimize harm from disasters. In using technology to increase business - a company is also placing much of their core practices at the mercy of that same technology.

Here are some simple steps a company can take to create a business continuity plan:

• Establish a business case for Risk Mitigation
• Follow a process:
• To Minimize the business impact
• To address Human Safety
• To mitigate corporate liability
• To meet regulatory requirements
• To protect the organization's public image
• Build and train the team(s)
• Create a business impact analysis - you might create a chart where you assign each business function a rating.
• Evaluate external resources
• Build a crisis communication plan

A good Disaster Recovery Plan will also be needed to mitigate the effects of a disaster. There are all types of documents available to help you design a plan but here are a few points to consider:

• Develop goals
• Identify key personnel
• Identify key points of failure
• Prepare a plan and procedures to support the plan
• Communicate the plan
• TEST and refine the plan
• Make sure you test the plan periodically

Don't end up with sticky notes all over - create a plan!

Here are some sites with useful information on disaster recovery and business continuity planning:

Business Continuity Disaster Recovery Plan Steps, Examples or Scenarios

CSO - Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery