Put the "Plan" into Recovering from a Disaster

Four Essential Elements For an Effective Disaster Recovery Plan

Step #1: Identify Which Systems Are Absolutely Critical to Operating Your Business

There are three areas you need to assess: data, systems, and communications.   Determine the data that is critical.  Your customer database and accounting may be critical, but your employment applications forms may not be.  On what computer systems is this data stored?  Your company data may not be stored  in one location.  Data can be scattered over many computers.  Also, determine which computer systems are critical.  Perhaps, your company website availability is not important, but being able to access the Internet is.  Sure, you need to access your customer database, but is printing also critical?  Lastly, how do your customers communicate with you?  How long can your business survive if all forms of communication are disrupted?  What percentage of customers get a hold of your company through the telephone, email, or website?   If 90% of you customers choose to contact your company using the telephone, then you could consider your phone system is far more critical than email.

Step #2: Determine How Long You Can Be Without These Critical Systems

If you clients could not contact you because all you communication systems are disrupted, how long will it take before they will contact a competitor?  If you cannot process orders, at what point will you lose revenue and potentially loose customers?  If you need your systems functional in 24 hours, then a solution that will get those systems functional in 7 to 10 days is not the right solution for your business.

Step #3: Know the Value of Your Critical Computer and Communications Systems 

It is easier to figure out what the replacement costs of you computers are, but what about that customer database?  How many hours have you spent entering information, comments, orders, etc?  How much did you pay employees to enter this data?  Sure, you will need this information for insurance purposes.  You do need to make sure you are properly covered.  And, you can't determine the best coverage until you know the replacement value of your systems and how much business you may lose as a result of the system being down.  But, insurance companies do NOT cover data loss, only lost business.  How long would it take to reconstruct your customer database?  How much would it cost you to have all that data re-entered into the database?  You may be surprised to find out that your database may be valued at tens of thousands of dollars.

Step #4 Have a Disaster Recovery Plan in Writing!

This is the most important element that you must have.  When a disaster occurs you must be ready to recover and get your business up and running otherwise your business will be a statistic. As simple as it may sound, just thinking through in advance what needs to happen if your server has a meltdown or a natural disaster wipes out your office, will go a long way in getting it back fast.  At minimum, the plan should contain details on what disaster could happen and a step-by-step process of what to do, who should do it and how.  Also include contact information for various providers and username and password information for various key web sites and services.  Writing this plan will also allow to think about what you need to budget for backup, maintenance, and disaster recovery.  If you can’t afford to have your network down for more than a few hours, then you need to a plan that can get you back up and running within that time frame.  You may want a redundant server, allowing your office to run off the redundant server while the real one is being repaired.  And, with “virtualization” there are real inexpensive options to having a redundant server.  If you can afford to be down a couple of days then there are less expensive solutions.  Once written, print out a copy and store it in a fireproof safe, and offsite copy, and a copy with your IT consultant. 

"Open for Business" disaster planning recovery series is an excellent source for those wanting to properly and fully plan for staying open for business in the event of any major disaster. 

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